I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job. — Lynne Tillman Copy Share Image
There may be an art to conversation, and some are better at it than others, but conversation's virtue lies in randomness and possibility: people,… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
I'd studied English literature and American history, but the English literature, which I thought was going to be helpful to me in an immediate… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
Laughing and crying are very similar. Sometimes people go from laughing to crying, or crying to laughing. I remember being at someone's wedding and… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
[Reality] isn't simply the so-called world that you're in. Your reality is a much larger one that takes in all matter of identification and… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
I write about what I'm thinking about. I write about what is bothering me or what is a political, aesthetic, or ethical issue or… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
My friends and I sometimes laugh at each other that there is so much maintenance of a body. I paid no attention when I… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
In a practical sense, pain kept me from sitting down as much, so that sometimes I would have to stand to write. Not that… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
I'm bothered, as a reader, when I feel the writer is filling in too much. Again, whether it's nonfiction or fiction, I think writers… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
It wasn't that I wanted to be an artist. But when I took my first drawing class with the painter Doug Ohlson, I could… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
I'm interested in reality but I'm not interested in realism at all. I'm interested in the ways that I think people want to relate. — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
It's true you have to screen out a lot living in the city. I stayed away from New York for a long time after… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
Kafka wrote the great line: "my education has damaged me in ways I do not even know." And that's always been a signature motto… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
There are lots of unlikable characters in literature. It doesn't mean they're not fascinating. — Lynne Tillman Copy Share
