The first draft often is really fast, and I'd be terribly ashamed if anybody ever saw it. — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
“That mysterious foreknowledge of my success in life was sweeter to me than the success itselt.” — Jonathan Dee Life Copy Share Image
Novels are a kind of experiment in selfhood, for the reader as well as for the author. — Jonathan Dee Books Copy Share Image
I seem to have a talent for writing endings that seem just right to me but that frustrate other people. — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
What could be more boring than a novel that tells you how to think about everything that happens in it? — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
John Dos Passos, Raymond Carver, Flaubert and William Maxwell were all very influential when I first started writing. Now, the writers I'm… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
Tween programming is so retro that the shows even have theme songs, something the quest for more commercial time drove out of… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
“She wanted to find his limit, because knowing that limit would drive a wedge between them; but in his mind, the question… — Jonathan Dee Heart Copy Share Image
There's no path to being a writer that's applicable to everyone. Some young writers have the fortitude to work in a vacuum.… — Jonathan Dee Applicable Copy Share Image
“I mean she's not exactly a complex figure. You can look at her and pretty much imagine what that whole relationship was… — Jonathan Dee Kindness Copy Share Image
It's nice to have something else going on when a book comes out so you're not just sitting by the phone, waiting… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I think that good storytelling of any kind does promote a humility in that it encourages you to see the world the… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
That's always the most productive research - research into tone, into voice. Facts are nice, too, but facts are more raw material… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I have no desire to write historical anything or futuristic anything - I want to find a way to get at the… — Jonathan Dee Alive Copy Share Image
Here is what I am not going to do: I am not going to go to a restaurant, take pictures of my… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I hesitate to say yes - I had writer's block, because I know there are people who've had really serious cases of… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
“Well, if you got Cynthia drunk enough, Cynthia thought, she would cop to wanting to do some good in the world, or… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I wrote my first novel in the same conditions as most first novelists - I had a full-time job, I shared an… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
In order to describe a particular subculture, you might want to portray people who are typical or representative of that subculture; but… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
'Anna Karenina.' I read it in college. I was so engrossed that I couldn't stop reading it and neglected all my other… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
The first draft of everything, I write longhand. One of the nice things about that is that it makes you keep going.… — Jonathan Dee Computer Copy Share Image
You see that in the news constantly; done both the right way and the wrong way. The most recent example I can… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
The Postman Always Rings Twice that's a book that I think every writer should read - that has to do with technique.… — Jonathan Dee Book Copy Share Image
“Why hadn't she just said yes? Then she could have driven alone back to the city [...] and picked up some guy… — Jonathan Dee Art Copy Share Image
One of my favorite pieces of advice about being a writer came from a very formative teacher I had as an undergraduate,… — Jonathan Dee Advice Copy Share Image
That's really the essence of what any fiction writer does. Some of it is research-based, but most of it is a really… — Jonathan Dee Book Copy Share Image
I am hopelessly devoted to paper. Nothing against e-readers of any sort - anything that keeps people reading is okay by me… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
You never want to be in a position where your reader feels like you're passing judgment on your own characters. Any novel… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I'm not interested in current events per se, but I am interested in how certain aspects of social or public life that… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
New York is ultimately not the synthesis but merely the sum of its unfathomable subjectivities, its personal histories, its uncategorisable figures. — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
Don't get me wrong: I can and do waste time on the Internet with the best of them, but in some respects,… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
It's not really an original idea, but there's something that goes along with power and celebrity that starts to make you feel… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I personally feel I still have so much to learn as a writer; each novel is better than the one before, just… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
Writers like to feel sorry for themselves, which is easy to do in private, but when called on to feel sorry for… — Jonathan Dee Book Copy Share Image
“The rain made for an odd effect forty floors up, because you didn't get to see it hit anything on the way… — Jonathan Dee Rain Copy Share Image
“Tough times brought out the bad side of people, it seemed, and this internet was like some giant bathroom wall where you… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
I worry that's what people are going to think about me if they kind of go backwards. But if that didn't happen… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
Those who know New York City primarily through tourism or mass culture may think of us natives as possessing certain shared characteristics,… — Jonathan Dee Copy Share Image
![“Why hadn't she just said yes? Then she could have driven alone back to the city [...] and picked up some guy and brought him back home and screwed him and kicked him out and then picked up her daughter at the train the next day like a spy or a con artist, as if the two sides of herself didn't even…” quote by Jonathan Dee](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/389/jonathan-dee-12196_art_why-hadn-t-she-just-said-yes-then-she-co_2733063.jpg)
