I think that maybe happy families don't need stories the way unhappy families need stories. Maybe they're too busy living that they don't actually step back and talk about life like the Anton Chekhov quote. I prefer Anton Chekhov to… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
I agree with the Lev Tolstoy quote completely, but I also feel like there's more to it. What is a happy family and an unhappy family? We're probably both of those things at the same time. — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
“The lake is always east. East is always the lake. Anywhere else he's ever been he never knows where he is.” — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
“For we are like olives: only when we are crushed do we yield what is best in us.” — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
Rarely is the pain of losing someone expressed with such directness, energy, and, yes, humor. The grief in Evan Kuhlman'sWolf Boyis palpable, and so… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
I'm pretty tight - I rewrite, in some cases, 70 to 80 times before I show it to people. — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
I feel like there are too many words in the world, and I think silence is so much more powerful than the glut of… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
I usually have a location and then I put the character there. I love place names. I think I'm tricking myself by being so… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
People have to follow their own strangeness. The minute they start making their own vision of the world flattened out so everyone can read… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
I revise and revise and revise. I'm not even sure "revise" is the right word. I work a story almost to death before it's… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
“Considering the multitude of things that happen in any one person’s life, it seems fairly unlikely that those little boys remembered the incident for… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
“Chicago does not go to the world, the world comes to Chicago! Who needs New York? Who has taller buildings than our tall buildings?… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
We don't want emotion handed to us - that's not emotion. You have to build and come from the reader's soul. — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories. — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
“Leo wondered what unknown sin they must have committed in some previous life to deserve this. The answer came the same way their feet… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
