“Storytelling is an escape from the jail of the self, leading to the ultimate adventure--seeing life through the eyes of another.” — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
To be a writer you need to see things as they are, and to see things as they are you need a… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
One of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
There are writers who do start doing the same thing again and again and almost inevitably fall into self-parody. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
And you can tell the writers who do it - Robert Stone, for example, who with each new novel is doing something… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
I teach one semester a year, and this year I'm just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Because the more you write the more you're aware of the weight of your tradition and the difficulties of the form and… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
But a lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“I've allowed some of these points to stand, because this is a book of memory, and memory has its own story to… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“He did not remember when he began to regard the heap of books on his desk with boredom and dread, or when… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
I recall that my workshop leaders were tactful in their ways of acquainting me with my shortcomings as a writer. So much… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“In the very act of writing I felt pleased with what I did. There was the pleasure of having words come to… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
There's a joy in writing short stories, a wonderful sense of reward when you pull certain things off. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“a true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.” — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
A piece of writing is a dangerous thing," he said. "It can change your life. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
When I was about 14 or 15 I decided to become a writer and never for a moment since have I wanted… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“Without pandering to your presumed desire to identify with the hero of a story, they made you feel that what mattered to… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
It's probably why I'm a short story writer. I tend to remember things in the past in narrative form, in story form,… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
That, for me, is a very important test of a young writer's commitment because most of them are going to have to… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
What writers do is they tell their own story constantly through other people's stories. They imagine other people, and those other people… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“Writers, to my way of thinking, are no more free in their choices than most people. Our material chooses us; certain things… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Of course it's why you want to become a writer - because you have the liberty to do that, but once you… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
You boys know what tropism is, it's what makes a plant grow toward the light. Everything aspires to the light. You don't have to… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
We even talked like Hemingway characters, though in travesty, as if to deny our discipleship: That is your bed, and it is a good… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
“But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
One of the last courses I taught was on the Russian short story, which I love. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
“He did not remember when everything began to remind him of something else.” — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
Work for most people is really very social, and the actual thinking is often done in community. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
I was giving up--being realistic, as people liked to say, meaning the same thing. Being realistic made me feel bitter. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
“Lose Faith. Pray anyway. Persist. We are made to persist, to complete the whole tour. That's how we find out who we are.” — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
It's probably why I'm a short story writer. I tend to remember things in the past in narrative form, in story form, and I… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests,… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
