For some people, it's very easy to be spontaneous and they can pour out the most wonderful stuff. But it's really hard to exert control over it, to think, 'Well, this could be different. This could go in the opposite… — Alice Mattison Copy Share Image
Sometimes indirect style and varying chronology is great, but quite often I've seen it be just something that gets in the way. It turns… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
Every once in a while someone says, 'You can't really learn anything, if you're really a writer then you wouldn't need to do it.'… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it. — Alice Mattison Copy Share
It's hard to say which of us is luckier, the ones who go through long periods when they can't write or the ones who… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
“When a man I like touches my arm or my hair, I want to know if he'll touch the center of me, and whatever… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
I heard a white writer say, 'Oh, I'd never put black people in my writing, I'm afraid I would offend someone by doing it… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
When I've taught writing to five, six, and seven year olds, it's not very different than talking to an adult writer. They're writers then,… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle they need… — Alice Mattison Copy Share
I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person. — Alice Mattison Copy Share
I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves. — Alice Mattison Copy Share
When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice. — Alice Mattison Copy Share
Writers sometimes are paid a great deal of money, but much more frequently they're not paid or are paid only a little bit. — Alice Mattison Copy Share
We're always inventing, even if we're making someone who's fairly close to ourselves. — Alice Mattison Copy Share
