Wanting to know absolutely what a story is about, and to be able to say it in a few sentences, is dangerous: it can lead us to wanting to possess a story as we possess a cup... A story can… — Andre Dubus Copy Share Image
“A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth.” — Andre Dubus Copy Share Image
I have always known that writing fiction had little effect on the world; that if it did, young men would not have gone to… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
I really think that if there's any one enemy to human creativity, especially creative writing, it's self-consciousness. — Andre Dubus Copy Share
After the dead are buried, after the physical pain of grief has become a permanent wound in the soul, then comes the transcendent and… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
“There’s something about taking the cart back instead of leaving it in the parking lot…It’s significant…Because somebody has to take them in…And if you… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
What's so exciting and terrifying about the writing process is that it really is an act of exploration and discovery. With all of us,… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
Don't outline your stories. A lot of fiction workshops say you should. I say the opposite. I quote Grace Paley: "We write what we… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
I think the writer's job is to paint the gray because no life is clearly defined. — Andre Dubus Copy Share
I know I learn a lot from the students in my class and I'm not just saying that to sound like some generous teacher. — Andre Dubus Copy Share
Proportion is all; and, in sports at school, I lost it by surrendering to the awful significance of my self-consciousness. Shyness has a strange… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
“When Jennifer was here in the summer, they were at the house most days. I would say generally that as they got older they… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
“The office was large, with many women and men at desks, and she learned their names, and presented to them an amiability she assumed… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
Don't quit. It's very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it's very hard to… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
“Its sound in her soul was a distant fast train. Love did not bring happiness, it did not last, and it ended in pain.… — Andre Dubus Copy Share
