Jami Attenberg

Your family is unavoidable. You cannot escape them or trade them in for another family. You also can't change them... but you…

— Jami Attenberg

Food and love are all intertwined at our core level. It can be a very nurturing, wonderful, loving thing.

— Jami Attenberg

It's the differences in people that help you realize who you are. Even if we silently pass each other on the street.

— Jami Attenberg

My Twitter feed is probably my biggest resource of news. Other people scour the web so I do not have to, and…

— Jami Attenberg

I think when you first start out, you're writing books that are about your immediate place.

— Jami Attenberg

When we are young - or even 32 - we often say 'yes' to everything because we're worried that we won't know…

— Jami Attenberg

“Middlestein thought texting was the same as Morse code, and the more people texted, the closer American came to being a nation…

— Jami Attenberg

I know the bestseller 'Gone Girl' doesn't need an ounce of support from me, but that book was as sharp and witty…

— Jami Attenberg

“And she was funny and beautiful and she liked the same books, the same music, and she wanted everything I did, was…

— Jami Attenberg

I do not mourn the death of the printed letter in a snobby, East Coast, patrician way - 'Where have our manners…

— Jami Attenberg

“It’s not that you want a baby, or want to get married, or any of it. It’s not your bag. You just…

— Jami Attenberg

Most of my writer friends are women, and they're all extremely talented, so of course I think the state of contemporary fiction…

— Jami Attenberg

I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published…

— Jami Attenberg

I just think structure can make a book feel so much bigger. It's the architecture. You could use flimsy materials if you…

— Jami Attenberg

The very best parts of me go into my writing, it is the best version of myself, and I don't think it's…

— Jami Attenberg

“She is vaguely satisfied; in fact she is on the cusp of complete satisfaction, she teeters there, undecided. To give into complete…

— Jami Attenberg

I know I have a problem with semi-colon abuse and have written page-long sentences. Nobody needs to be reading page-long sentences, at…

— Jami Attenberg

What's the point of having a book club if you don't get to eat brownies and drink wine?

— Jami Attenberg

I wish I could write while I'm on the road but it never works for me. I need to be sitting still.

— Jami Attenberg

Social media can connect you with other people in so many wonderful ways - but it can also make you really sick…

— Jami Attenberg

I've just always written, and always considered myself a writer. I wrote my first story when I was five. There was nothing…

— Jami Attenberg

Some journal writers choose to password-protect their site, which is either an incredibly responsible act or a paranoid one.

— Jami Attenberg

I'm not that much of a researcher. I'm good at channeling characters, and I'm good at structure.

— Jami Attenberg

“To be an artist means a lifetime of being told no, with the occasional yes showing up just to give you enough…

— Jami Attenberg

I don't know if I had ever found my place in the world until I fully committed to being a writer.

— Jami Attenberg

My laptop broke and because of the storm I could not get a new one. And so I've been promoting my book…

— Jami Attenberg

Maybe I wouldn't hit three fast food restaurants in a day, but I could hit one in a day. I try not…

— Jami Attenberg

In 'The Odyssey,' every feast is extremely ritualized; high-status individuals even get a better cut of meat.

— Jami Attenberg

Why e-mail a full emotional statement when, instead, you can text a totally insignificant and ambiguous half-considered phrase?

— Jami Attenberg

For years I drove cross-country, back and forth a dozen times, sometimes on book tour, sometimes just to get lost and found.

— Jami Attenberg

“mostly I have found myself resisting their sadness when I have so much of my own.”

— Jami Attenberg

My last book was speculative. I just don't quite know what I am doing. But I'll get there. I have a list…

— Jami Attenberg

For years I'd thought my color was black: deep, dark, thoughtful, mysterious. Black, you can hide behind. But now I know it…

— Jami Attenberg

“I always reel for a few days after I witness someone's personal truth. I walk around feeling like I'm wearing their essence…

— Jami Attenberg

With apologies to all my past boyfriends, I never loved a man the way I loved my old apartment.

— Jami Attenberg

In your 40s, you shed those who bring you down and surround yourself with the most positive people you know.

— Jami Attenberg

What a character eats is a detail - like eye color or a favorite song. But food is also our lifeblood.

— Jami Attenberg

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

— Jami Attenberg

As creative people, we should be really conscious of being of service in our work, being as generous as we can.

— Jami Attenberg

I have very distinct memories about growing up as part of what was then a very small Jewish community in Buffalo Grove,…

— Jami Attenberg