I feel like one of the things I'm trying most to do is stretch my empathetic reach, as far as it will go. I got as far as Gilles de Rais' assistant, for example, and not really as far as… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I think fiction is all about the exercise of the empathetic imagination. Part of what I do is let the stuff I read about meld with what I have experienced. — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I love the box that such a decision puts you in, and I love the interest the reader has in seeing how you negotiate… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I don't think conservativism is about a deficiency. I think it's about a commitment to an ideology that has to in some ways devalue… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I do find stories - or literary fiction - an apt form for analyzing the world. And especially for trying to imagine the other.… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
Does research get in the way of the story? It certainly can. Anything can, given that as writers we're all geniuses at procrastination. But… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
“But what I did was the kind of thing you'd do and the kind of thing you've done: I felt bad for him and… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I have written screenplays. Most recently for Errol Morris, who was thinking about doing his first fiction movie, and with a young director who… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
Class is the most taboo subject in America. The American media would rather talk about race or perversion or anything else considered taboo before… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I don't beat at the details, but I do always keep in mind that anything that isn't A) moving the story forward or B)… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
Empathy is a human trait. But lots of humans exercise some traits more energetically than others. By "the usefulness of empathy" I mean the… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
“But this is the only account hand-copied and tacked to my bulletin board, the testimony of a Dutch pilot caught on shore near Anjer,… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I'm tempted to do everything. And sometimes I think, "Oh, come on. You can stick that detail somewhere." — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
I'll find something in what I read that snags my imagination in emotional terms; it resonates with me for reasons more complicated than just… — Jim Shepard Copy Share Image
