I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person. — Alice Mattison Books Copy Share Image
You have to write fiction that mirrors the actual world, which has people of all sorts in it. — Alice Mattison Fiction Copy Share Image
Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older. — Alice Mattison Education Copy Share Image
In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school. — Alice Mattison Culture Copy Share Image
I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes… — Alice Mattison Books Copy Share Image
I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle… — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think. — Alice Mattison Culture Copy Share Image
There are so many different ways, most of them helpful and legal, to get yourself into a state of mind where writing… — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
Sometimes indirect style and varying chronology is great, but quite often I've seen it be just something that gets in the way.… — Alice Mattison Chronology Copy Share Image
We have to diversify, we have to find work we can do that helps other people while helping ourselves, work that has… — Alice Mattison Books Copy Share Image
I think we need to develop the courage to write from the viewpoint of people who may seem quite different from ourselves,… — Alice Mattison Courage Copy Share Image
I think the difference between writing as someone and writing for them is that when you write for someone, you take on… — Alice Mattison Burden Copy Share Image
I think a day in your life on which nothing bad happens may be a wonderful day, but it probably isn't going… — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
I've been astonished how often, when I convince a writer to tell a story more straightforwardly and to tell it more simply… — Alice Mattison Books Copy Share Image
We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story. — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
This is true in other fields, too, that a legal aid lawyer gets a whole lot less money than a Hollywood lawyer… — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs. — Alice Mattison Community Copy Share Image
It's hard to say which of us is luckier, the ones who go through long periods when they can't write or the… — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
There seems to be a tremendous desire among many people now to know authors and how they work, to know what's autobiographical… — Alice Mattison Autobiographical Copy Share Image
There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear… — Alice Mattison Censorship Copy Share Image
I heard a white writer say, 'Oh, I'd never put black people in my writing, I'm afraid I would offend someone by… — Alice Mattison Bears Copy Share Image
