What you can do with a short story that you can't do with a novel is punch someone in the gut, in the best of ways. — 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
