I was really interested in piano and sort of discovered that I was a writer when I was about 13 and started… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
For me writing isn't a mental exercise, it's barely even a literary exercise, it feels like a spiritual experience. — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
People have been asking me, "What advice do you have for young writers?" I tell them: a) get off social media; b)… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
I'm asking the reader to suspend reality with me and entertain the idea that the person writing is not me. In order… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
Think about every time you've seen someone being objectified, abused, enslaved. We see it constantly on the TV, in magazines, on the… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
I prefer reading novels. Short stories are too much like daggers. And now that I'm done with my collection I'm more interested… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
I want to say that what is cool about writing self-aware first person narrative is that the awareness is not necessarily the… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
I was feeling like I'd been born in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. I don't believe… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
The way that I see third person is it's actually first person. Writing for me is all voice work. Third person narrative… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
I've dedicated a lot of my life as a writer to understanding how to hear the divine voice, or the music of… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
There are a lot of smart people being really thoughtful and writing really interesting things, but that isn't what I want to… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
In fiction the narrator is a performance of voice, and it can be any style of voice, but I'm interested in the… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
I don't remember reading much at all during the writing of Eileen. I go through several years-long dry spells and I don't… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share Image
Sometimes I think I'm a nihilist because it doesn't matter, none of this matters. We're all following the will of some unknowable higher power,… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
If you look at the horror genre, that work is all about making people uncomfortable by stimulating our fear of death. — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
I've always really enjoyed sharing my work with others. I find it really hard if I don't think the work will exist outside of… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
Indifference is the saddest state of being. It's like PTSD - you're not gonna fight, you're not gonna run, you're just frozen there, feeling… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“Talking to Reva about misery was insufferable. 'Look on the bright side,' was what she wanted everyone to do.” — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
What's inspiring me the most [is] injustice. My own growth as a member of the human race, in terms of the veils being lifted,… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“Knowledge of anything current or faddish made me feel I was just a victim of isolation.” — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“I wanted to hold onto the house the way you'd hold onto a love letter. It was proof that I had not always been… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“Like a favorite song you’ve heard so many times it begins to annoy you,” — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“I watched that old world go by, away and away, gone gone gone, until, like me, it disappeared.” — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“I was nervous. It had been a long time since I’d gone any place I wanted to be.” — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“But maybe I’d need something to read on my ride to my future, I thought. I could borrow a few of the finer books… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“The stars come out. I look for the moon, but it eludes me. I can't find or measure my way. Drift, drift. If I… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
“Right," I said, but it didn't feel very right. I didn't want to make it. I wanted to lie down with it and strangle… — Ottessa Moshfegh Copy Share
