Our memories tell us who we are and they cannot be achieved through committee work, by consulting other people about what happened. That doesn't mean that at all times memories are telling us the absolute truth, but that the main… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
You boys know what tropism is, it's what makes a plant grow toward the light. Everything aspires to the light. You don't have to chase down a fly to get rid of it - you just darken the room, leave a crack of light in a window, and out he goes. Works every time. We all have that instinct, that… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
We even talked like Hemingway characters, though in travesty, as if to deny our discipleship: That is your bed, and it is a good bed, and you must make it and you must make it well. Or: Today is the day of the meatloaf. The meatloaf is swell. It is swell but when it is gone the not-having meatloaf will… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share
“But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
One of the last courses I taught was on the Russian short story, which I love. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“He did not remember when everything began to remind him of something else.” — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Work for most people is really very social, and the actual thinking is often done in community. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live… — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
I was giving up--being realistic, as people liked to say, meaning the same thing. Being realistic made me feel bitter. — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
“Lose Faith. Pray anyway. Persist. We are made to persist, to complete the whole tour. That's how we find out who we are.” — Tobias Wolff Copy Share Image
