I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“Novel writing, I soon discovered, is like channel swimming: a slow and steady stroke over a long distance in a cold, dark… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I am not mature enough as a reader to enjoy a book in which I hate all the people. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“I could have had one life but insteads I had another because of this book my grandmother protected. What a miracle is… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
You learn every time you write a book, and then you take that new knowledge and experience into the next book. Hopefully,… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
No matter how much we love a book, the experience of reading it isn't complete until we can give it to someone… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“I think that what influences us in literature comes less from what we love and more from what we happen to pick… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I love telling people what to read. It's my favorite thing in the world, to buy books and force books on people,… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“if I wanted to be a better writer, I was the only person who could push myself to do it. It was… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“If I were taking notes, they would read: I see something. A shape? I have no idea. It’s not exactly the stuff… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“Maybe everyone does have a novel in them, perhaps even a great one. I don't believe it, but for the purposes of… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I have been shown so much kindness in my life, so for me to write books about good, kind people seems completely… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
That's one of the many things about having the bookstore that I adore. I can walk into the store and say to… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I don't want to stand with somebody's praise. Whereas now when people come up to me, they say, "I love the bookstore"… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“Without worry to protect me, every thought that came into my mind received real attention.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“I wrote the last sentence of The Patron Saint of Liars in early April and stumbled out of my apartment and into the beautiful… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“In the future, he will try to say her name enough, but he never can.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“He was in love, and never had he felt such kindness towards another person.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
If I was a waitress, I was too tired at the end of the day when I came home to try to write. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“She didn't know how to hate her mother yet, but every time she left her father crying in the airport she came that much… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“When you think of love you think as an American. You must think like a Russian. It is a more expansive view.' 'Americans havea… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
