Lorrie Moore

“In so many things I loved I was sadly insufficiently gifted and driven. But writing I could plod along with -- and…

— Lorrie Moore

“But it would be like going to Heaven and not finding any of your friends there. Her life would go all beatific…

— Lorrie Moore

“A woman had to choose her own particular unhappiness carefully. That was the only happiness in life: to choose the best unhappiness.…

— Lorrie Moore

But that inadequacy, or feeling of inadequacy, never really goes away. You just have to trudge ahead in the rain, regardless.

— Lorrie Moore

It was not miserable - often I did not miss her at all. But there was sometimes a quick, sinking ache when…

— Lorrie Moore

“Like everyone he knew, he could discern the hollowness in people’s charm only when it was directed at someone other than himself.”

— Lorrie Moore

shopping for clothes is like masturbation - everyone does it, but it isn't very interesting and therefore should be done alone, in…

— Lorrie Moore

“Unless you have a life of great importance," she said, regrets are stupid, crumpled-up tickets to a circus that has already left…

— Lorrie Moore

“She looked pink and beseeching, though essentially she looked the same, as people do despite the fact they have begun to turn…

— Lorrie Moore

If you look at most womens writing, women writers will describe women differently from the way male writers describe women. The details…

— Lorrie Moore

“Are you anywhere near Champaign-Urbana?" "No." "I went there once. I thought from its name that it would be a different kind…

— Lorrie Moore

You couldn't pretend you had lost nothing... you had to begin there, not let your blood freeze over. If your heart turned…

— Lorrie Moore

The problem with a beautiful woman is that she makes everyone around her feel hopelessly masculine, which if you’re already male to…

— Lorrie Moore

“If you were alone when you were born, alone when you were dying, really absolutely alone when you were dead, why "learn…

— Lorrie Moore

“Where does love go? When something you have taped on the wall falls off, what has happened to the stickum? It has…

— Lorrie Moore

My father was the child of academics and was probably destined to become an academic himself but vetoed that idea. Bailed, dropped…

— Lorrie Moore

“Tone was all. Gift wrap was all. Perfect the wrap, and you could put whatever you wanted in the box. You could…

— Lorrie Moore

“This is Quilty's audition ritual: whenever he feels it is time for it, he calls upon himself to audition for love. He…

— Lorrie Moore

Adults are living increasingly as children: completely in their imaginations. Reading Harry Potter while every newspaper in the country goes out of…

— Lorrie Moore

“It was true. Men could be with whomever they pleased. But women had to date better, kinder, richer, and bright, bright, bright,…

— Lorrie Moore

“I felt nothing like a horse, whose instincts I knew were to run and run. I had mostly in life tried to…

— Lorrie Moore

“She decided it was perhaps a little like marriage itself: a good idea that, like all ideas, lived awkwardly on earth. -Terrific…

— Lorrie Moore

I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable about this," he says. Say: "Hey. I am a very cool person. I am…

— Lorrie Moore

Awkwardness is where tension is, and tension is where the story is. It's also where the comedy is, which I'm interested in;…

— Lorrie Moore

“I'll go see her tonight,' I said. I felt I was a person of my word, and by saying something I could…

— Lorrie Moore

“When misfortune accumulated, I could feel now, it strafed you to the thinness of a nightgown, sheared you to the sheerness of…

— Lorrie Moore

“Unless you have a life of great importance, regrets are stupid, crumpled-up tickets to a circus that has already left town.”

— Lorrie Moore

“Mave believed that not being able to see your life clearly, to scrutinize it intelligently, meant that probably you were at the…

— Lorrie Moore

I did think reviewers were supposed to be polite about story collections - collections are rather delicate creatures in the literary environment…

— Lorrie Moore

“I used to think that those essentially happy and romantic novels that ended with a wedding were all wrong, that they had…

— Lorrie Moore

Every arrangement in life carried with it the sadness, the sentimental shadow, of its not being something else, but only itself.

— Lorrie Moore

“While my scarcely controlled rage flew from my mouth in sentences I hoped would be, perhaps not then but perhaps later, like…

— Lorrie Moore

“We used awesome the way the British used brilliant: for anything at all. Perhaps . . . it was a kind of…

— Lorrie Moore

“She would try to live life one day at a time, like an alcoholic--drink, don't drink, drink. Perhaps she should take drugs.”

— Lorrie Moore

People love gossip because it's slightly removed from actuality. It's a very literary thing... You can hear a great story, and it…

— Lorrie Moore

Love is the answer, said the songs, and that's OK. It was OK, I supposed, as an answer. But no more than…

— Lorrie Moore

“There was sex where you were looked in the eye and beautiful things were said to you, and then there was what…

— Lorrie Moore

“[Her life] had taken on the shape of a terrible mistake. She hadn't been given the proper tools to make a real…

— Lorrie Moore

If you record the world honestly, there's no way people can stop being funny. A lot of fiction writing doesn't get that…

— Lorrie Moore

When you find out who you are, you will no longer be innocent. That will be sad for others to see. All…

— Lorrie Moore