I was reading for understanding. I wanted to do to a reader what Salinger did for me. — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
You lose a wallet or keys or something and you notice in a second, but your life can go missing and you don't even… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
“At 9:15 on Thursday morning, June 4, while Jordan Delreese was bludgeoning his two young children to death, I was sitting in Dr. Hamburger's… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
You will feel discouraged; you will lose confidence in your abilities; you will be bored with the characters–and the only way to overcome these… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
There were the fairy tales my father told to me at bedtime. All the standards. I thought my father invented wolves. — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
If you think about it, fiction is nothing more than gossip about the people you've made up. — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
I revise like crazy. I start revising before the pen hits the paper. — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
“I loved her for what I couldn't understand about her. Love searches for the mystery in the beloved, seeks the unknowable.” — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
“I told her how I thought you could always revise your life, how you could work and work on it, finesse the details, see… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
I write with a fountain pen. And then revise word by word and line by line so that the first draft of a scene… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
With each draft, the work gets better, and usually that means tighter. It means getting the precise word, not the approximate word. — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
Novels are written, not wished into existence. You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing gets done. — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
In revision, your imagination becomes deeply engaged with your material. It's when you come to know your characters and begin to perceive their motivations… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
