The Israel stories were really hard for me to write, because I think that my book is very much about politics, but it isn't political. It really was important for me to not have a political agenda at all, because… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
For so many of my characters, they were political in their own countries and they risked their lives for certain political beliefs that they had, only to be brought to America where they're not treated like Americans - they're just… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
So if there was a way that I knew something about my character's desires or the things that they were resisting because I was… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
“But for the first time, Boaz couldn't think of a single word to describe this kind of loneliness, so scary and real it required… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
“... having been with Boaz for so long that she could predict every one of his moves, their sex life was more like a… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
I always tell my students to write the story all the way through, not to play with the language and fall in love with sentences that you then have to cut. I actually find that really difficult to do; there's something so demoralizing about looking at a pile of not very great sentences. As I ease into writing every morning,… — Molly Antopol Copy Share
The Israel stories were really hard for me to write, because I think that my book is very much about politics, but it isn't… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
Years ago I read an interview with Paula Fox in which she said that in writing, truth is just as important as story. Reading… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
People are going to bash you. You get rejected. It's hard. I don't really feel like that's my place as the teacher. I think… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
But what I realized when I was looking back at them was that no matter how different they are, they're still coming from me, and they're still coming from my brain and my set of obsessions. I think that no matter how different I tried to make them, there were just these certain questions that I just kept circling back… — Molly Antopol Copy Share
It's funny - for a long time, I didn't know I was writing a book. I was writing stories. For me, each story took so long and took so much out of me, that when I finished it, I was like, Oh my gosh, I feel like I've poured everything from myself into this, and then I'd get depressed for… — Molly Antopol Copy Share
With the Holocaust - I wonder if a lot of Jewish writers of my generation have felt this way - it feels really intimidating to approach it. I feel like so many writers who have either lived through it firsthand or were part of that generation where they were closer to the people who were in it have written so… — Molly Antopol Copy Share
Raymond Carver had the quote that I loved about how he felt that a short story was the moment right before someone's life was… — Molly Antopol Copy Share Image
I felt like if I could get the epiphany out of the way in my drafting process, through my eighth or tenth draft, then that can just be part of how I've assembled the character, and then we can move on and move forward with it. In general, I don't ever want to feel smarter than my characters, because I… — Molly Antopol Copy Share
