“This morning's pastry poses challenges. To assemble the tiny mosaic disks of chocolate flake and candied ginger, Avis must execute a number of discrete, ritualistic steps: scraping the chocolate with a fine grater, rolling the dough cylinder in large-grain sanding… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
Every day I try to do some small thing connected to writing. Or I'll station myself at a café and try to hold myself captive with chocolate. I find that writers tend to be dismissive of small amounts of work… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
If you only write for 15 minutes at a time, you can write a book and still have time for Legos. — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
“The streets of Aqaba are shell spirals and, on summer nights, crowded and complicated as a woman's heart.” — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
I'm constantly at war with myself to quit goofing around, and the internet hasn't helped that any. I've learned that I have to be… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
“Sometimes when she lies awake her body feels as finely made as a tuning fork. She can hear and smell the most delicate things,… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
The daily writing practice is something I used to hear batted around a lot in writing workshops - which is probably why I dropped out of all the writing workshops. I wish I could take credit for innovating a new approach to writing, but the truth is that I've managed to write books despite myself. I'm lazy and ungovernable and… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share
“...tasting a piece of bread that someone bought is like looking at that person, but tasting a piece of bread that they baked is… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
“She thinks of Stanley's colored pencil drawings of theoretical businesses: a cafe, a bookshop, and, always, a grocery store. When she was ten and he was fourteen, he was already working as a bag boy at Publix, reading what their father called "hippie books." He talked about stuff like citrus canker, the Big Sugar mafia, and genetically modified foods and… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share
“The loneliness of the arab is a terrible thing; it is all consuming. It is already present like a little shadow under the heart when he lays his head on his mother's lap; it threatens to swallow him whole when he leaves his own country, even though he marries and travels and talks to friends twenty-four hours a day. That… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share
“She's been scouted by Ford and Elite- real New York agencies. Micah, the agent for Elite- a tall black guy in silver eyeliner- said that Felice was "heart-stopping." Everyone says that Felice looks like Elizabeth Taylor- all pleased with themselves, as if she were hearing this for the first time. It used to bug Felice: she pictured that squat, henlike… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share
“On the top rack is a cooled and decorated seven-layered 'opera' cake. Her client- the Peruvian ambassador- had requested a "tropical" theme for a dinner party dessert. Avis had based the decoration on the view through the kitchen window, re-creating in lime, lemongrass, and mint frostings the curling backyard flora, curving foliage shaped like tongues and hearts, fat spines bisecting… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share
Here is something you have to understand about stories: They point you in the right direction but they can't take you all the way… — Diana Abu-Jaber Copy Share Image
