You can't take a story and just stretch it out - that does not a novel make. — David Means Copy Share Image
I think all good short stories are about what it means to tell a good story. — David Means Copy Share Image
I like landscape, I guess. It's kind of a game to see how you can describe it. — David Means Game Copy Share Image
A kiss is often about the future and the past. A lost dream, about the discretion of the idealism. — David Means Dream Copy Share Image
America turns its back on the mentally ill. It likes to think it doesn't, but it does. — David Means America Copy Share Image
I don't want to be a commentator of my own work. If you've written the story, you've said what you want to… — David Means Commentator Copy Share Image
I was an at-home father, taking care of them for seven years when they were babies. I was one of those new-age,… — David Means Babies Copy Share Image
Wars never simply end, not for those in combat and not for the culture, and one way or another, they shape-shift from… — David Means Culture Copy Share Image
I don't think you could write fiction or create art unless you are sort of a positive person. — David Means Art Copy Share Image
My characters - no, make that most characters - are seeking the shelter of narrative resolution, a place of quiet and grace. — David Means Grace Copy Share Image
Undergraduate writers seem to be, in a way, more open to letting themselves just write. — David Means Copy Share Image
I find the middle classes kind of boring. The middle class has kind of been beaten like a dead horse by fictional… — David Means Copy Share Image
In the days following 9/11, when we were reeling and disoriented, there was a kind of solace to be found in old… — David Means Bygone days Copy Share Image
Americans are pragmatic; we want quick, clean, simple solutions to vast problems. The paradox is that we're a deeply confessional culture, but… — David Means America Copy Share Image
As a story writer, you have work with sharp but relatively small tools, the picks of metaphor, the shovel blade of images,… — David Means Copy Share Image
A short story collection can be as exciting as a novel. It is a real complete experience, like when you listen to… — David Means Beatles Copy Share Image
Every interaction with another person involves a dance of expectation, even when you're just passing someone in the street. Inside those moments… — David Means Dance Copy Share Image
What I appreciate about Radiohead's work - and it's most evident in 'Hail to the Thief' - is how the juxtaposition of… — David Means Copy Share Image
I've got deep roots in Kalamazoo, with a grandfather, Harold Allen, who was a big part of Upjohn Co. for many years… — David Means Copy Share Image
I'm not sure if a writer should talk about themes. Themes arrive out of the deeper structure and concerns, but to me,… — David Means Copy Share Image
From George Martin's classically inspired production of the Beatles to Peter Gabriel's early solo masterpieces, to Stereolab's beautiful loops and blips, U.K.-based… — David Means Beatles Copy Share Image
I'm not at all interested in simply reporting what's here right now, or cranking out an entertainment device that's going to touch… — David Means Copy Share Image
It's really hard to be a story writer - no matter how much acclaim you get - and not write a novel. — David Means Books Copy Share Image
I think most short story writers, at one time or another, over the course of several books, naturally skirt near the edge… — David Means Books Copy Share Image
The wonderful thing about being an American writer is you've got this vastness to draw from. — David Means Copy Share Image
I studied English at the College of Wooster in Ohio, and I did an M.F.A. in Poetry at Columbia. — David Means College Copy Share Image
I think that those moments before a performer plays are the moments when the potential for something to be created may -… — David Means Copy Share Image
Vietnam and Iraq are part of the same national trauma and delusion; we folded the war up when Reagan became president and… — David Means Delusion Copy Share Image
There's a huge distance between who I am as a regular person and what takes place in my fiction. — David Means Copy Share Image
Those who see beauty almost too intensely can easily look mad to those who are functioning within the confines of so-called normal… — David Means Beauty Copy Share Image
You don't know what you need when you're a young writer. You can get small slivers of critical input, advice, comments, but… — David Means Advice Copy Share Image
A good folk song tells you something you already know, in a form you're already familiar with, on terms that were set… — David Means Copy Share Image
I was a kid who was born and raised on Johnny Cash. My father played 'At Folsom Prison' constantly. Cash was the… — David Means Copy Share Image
