When all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story. — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
“Nabokov once said that the price of being a writer was sleepless nights. But, Nabokov added slyly, if the writer doesn’t have… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
If you want to see the consequences of ideas, write a story. If you want to see the consequences of belief, write… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable. — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
When I'm writing, I'm waiting to see somebody, and I'm waiting to hear them. It's almost like conjuring spirits out of the… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
It's my feeling that any writer can get an emotion into a story without being sentimental as long as the emotion is… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
I feel quite at home writing short stories but nervous and anxious when writing novels, as if the bad time of consecutive… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
Say what you want about it, Hell is story-friendly... The mechanisms of hell are nicely attuned to the mechanisms of narrative. Not… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
“An unthinkable thought is not one that hasn't occurred to somebody, nor is it a thought that somebody considers to be wrong.… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
“The twentieth century has built up a powerful set of intellectual shortcuts and devices that help us defend ourselves against moments when… — Charles Baxter Copy Share Image
It's my feeling that any writer can get an emotion into a story without being sentimental as long as the emotion is dealt with… — Charles Baxter Copy Share
At least with pets, and for all I know, people too, intelligence and quick-wittedness have nothing to do with a talent for being loved,… — Charles Baxter Copy Share
Literature is not a sack race. There aren't real winners and losers in the Republic of Letters. — Charles Baxter Copy Share
“Literature is not an instruction manual. For obvious reasons, this is rarely noted in fiction.” — Charles Baxter Copy Share
“Gurov, discovers that the most important features of life that you want to talk about cannot be spoken of in polite society.” — Charles Baxter Copy Share
“Men have strength, Miss Ferenczi said, but no true magic. That is why men fall in love with women but women do not fall… — Charles Baxter Copy Share
There's nothing to talk about to strangers anymore, if you know what I mean. Everything I want to say, I say to her. — Charles Baxter Copy Share
“Anyway, what I've just told you was what prompted the chair incident. I had grown big, and he was trying to belittle me.” — Charles Baxter Copy Share
“intelligence and quick-wittedness have nothing to do with a talent for being loved, or being kind, nothing at all, less than nothing.” — Charles Baxter Copy Share
When you’re in love you don’t have to do a damn thing. You can just be. You can just stay quiet in the world.… — Charles Baxter Copy Share
In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people… — Charles Baxter Copy Share
