To be honest, there are parts of 'How Literature Saved My Life' that began as interviews. Someone was telling me that they… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I'm very drawn to the way in which a life lived can be an art of sorts or a failed art, and… — David Shields Copy Share Image
The beauty of reality-based art - art underwritten by reality hunger - is that it's perfectly situated between life itself and (unattainable)… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I couldn't tell a story if my life depended on it. I'm the world's worst joke-teller. — David Shields Copy Share Image
“Samuel Johnson: A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it .” — David Shields Copy Share Image
“Why would someone for whom talking was torture want to talk all the time before thousands of Athenians? Because otherwise he’d have… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I hope readers will think that 'The Thing About Life' is beautifully patterned, a tapestry. — David Shields Copy Share Image
I want work that, possessing as thin a membrane as possible between life and art, foregrounds the question of how the writer… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I argued strongly to the American publisher that 'Reality Hunger' should come out first. They thought that 'The Thing About Life' would… — David Shields Copy Share Image
You don't think anyone who lives an ordinary life has plenty of trouble and torment to write about? — David Shields Copy Share Image
A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it. — David Shields Copy Share Image
I don’t know what’s the matter with me, why I’m so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why… — David Shields Copy Share Image
So many of the things I talk about in 'Reality Hunger' seem to be the things that 'The Thing About Life' does… — David Shields Copy Share Image
You, Dad, in the large scheme of things, don't matter. I, Dad, don't matter. We're vectors on the grids of cellular life. — David Shields Copy Share Image
I still see life entirely through its Darwinian prism. I keep trying to shake off the aftereffects of writing 'The Thing About… — David Shields Copy Share Image
To be honest, there are parts of 'How Literature Saved My Life' that began as interviews. Someone was telling me that they think the… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I'm very drawn to the way in which a life lived can be an art of sorts or a failed art, and a life-lived-told… — David Shields Copy Share Image
You're one of 6.5 billion people now on the planet, and 99.9 percent of your genes are the same as everyone else's. — David Shields Copy Share Image
We're completely confused about the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. To me, the moment you compose, you're fictionalising; the moment you remember, you're dreaming.… — David Shields Copy Share Image
Your art is most alive and dangerous when you use it against yourself. That's why I pick at my scabs. — David Shields Copy Share Image
Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data. — David Shields Copy Share Image
Swimming is by far the best tonic I've found for my back. I'm not a good swimmer - I do the breaststroke or elementary… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I've always liked this idea that writing should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable to create trouble. The value of a work of… — David Shields Copy Share Image
The beauty of reality-based art - art underwritten by reality hunger - is that it's perfectly situated between life itself and (unattainable) "life as… — David Shields Copy Share Image
“A great book allows me to leap over that wall: in a deep, significant conversation with another consciousness, I feel human and unalone.” — David Shields Copy Share Image
