reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Part of it is living in Tennessee. I'm so out of the loop. And as a person, I'm out of the loop.… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I am the person who is appropriating stories that are not mine and turning them into a book. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
You throw a person in the river and then make a spectacle of jumping in to save them. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
But we cannot unbraid the story of another person’s life and take out all the parts that don’t suit our purposes and… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I think that people all grow up and have their same personalities, but you can say, "Oh, I can see the roots… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
If a person has never given writing a try, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really,… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I think, if you want to grow a novelist, for that person to have a lot of boring time trying to entertain… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
People always say, "Can writing be taught?" I always think, I can teach you how to write a better sentence, how to… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
You are the same person in every aspect of your life, and you have to be a responsible person in every aspect… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“Without worry to protect me, every thought that came into my mind received real attention.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“I wrote the last sentence of The Patron Saint of Liars in early April and stumbled out of my apartment and into the beautiful… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“In the future, he will try to say her name enough, but he never can.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“He was in love, and never had he felt such kindness towards another person.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
If I was a waitress, I was too tired at the end of the day when I came home to try to write. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“She didn't know how to hate her mother yet, but every time she left her father crying in the airport she came that much… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“When you think of love you think as an American. You must think like a Russian. It is a more expansive view.' 'Americans havea… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
