If one publishes, then one is creating a public record of Learning to Write. — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Better to think of writing, of what one does, as an activity, rather than an identity to keep the calling a verb… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
I do have people in mind when I write. I don't know precisely who they are, however, or how many of them… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
An author's life is different, complex, and ongoing, while a character's remains frozen in one little story. — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Everything one reads is nourishment of some sort - good food or junk food - and one assumes it all goes in… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Writing has to be an obsession - it's only for those who say, 'I'm not going to do anything else.' — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Writers have no real area of expertise. They are merely generalists with a highly inflamed sense of punctuation. — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
It is like having a book out from the library. It is like constantly having a book out from the library. — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
I'm a little harsh. When people say, 'I have writers block. What do you suggest?' I say, 'If you can't write, don't… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
the compulsion to read and write - and it seems to me it should be, even must be, a compulsion - is… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
What do I do when writing isn't going well? Well, I don't write - which is symptom, cure, and cause. And then… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Begin to wonder what you do write about. Or if you have anything to say. Or even if there is such a… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
“The proper relationship of a writer to his or her own life is similar to a cook with a cupboard. What the… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
I don’t go back and look at my early work, because the last time I did, many years ago, it left me… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
A novel is a daily labor over a period of years. A novel is a job. But a story can be like… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Rather than a teaching tool, I think a novel is more of a witnessing entity. A witnessing entity? What is that? I… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
If one loves stories, then one would naturally love the story of the story. Or the story behind the story, pick your… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Writing is both the excursion into and the excursion out of one's life. That is the queasy paradox of the artistic life.… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
If you look at most womens writing, women writers will describe women differently from the way male writers describe women. The details… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
Perhaps one would be wise when young even to avoid thinking of oneself as a writer - for there's something a little… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
I did think reviewers were supposed to be polite about story collections - collections are rather delicate creatures in the literary environment… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
But I believed in starting over. There was finally, I knew, only rupture and hurt and falling short between all persons, but, Shirley, the… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
I'm very interested in what people will do for money. Money: it's timeless. — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
“One of the problems with people in Chicago, she remembered, was that they were never lonely at the same time. Their sadness occurred in… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
“If you had forgotten, it would quickly come back to you. Aloneness was like riding a bike. At gunpoint. With the gun in your… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
“Observing others go through them, he used to admire midlife crises, the courage and shamelessness and existential daring of them, but after he'd watched… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
Start dating someone who is funny, someone who has what in high school you called a "really great sense of humor" and what now… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
“Amber was not shy. If she had been shy, not one of us would be at Perkins right now.” — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
“Farmers aren't rich. They have land but no money." Actually, my father didn't even have that much land. He had once stood on the… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
“My grandmother, who, when I visited, stared at me with the staggering, arrogant stare of the dying, the wise vapidity of the already gone;… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
I count too heavily on birthdays, though I know I shouldn't. Inevitably I begin to assess my life by them, figure out how I'm… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
I had never feared insomnia before--like prison, wouldn't it just give you more time to read? — Lorrie Moore Copy Share
