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Time Quotes by Jennifer Egan

39 Time quotes by Jennifer Egan

All Time quotes Jennifer Egan’s page

Solar panels tilt to collect moonlight shows how time can be harnessed for a shared goal. Jennifer describes drafting dozens of versions before a story feels right, and she notes that a child’s presence can stretch or shrink the feeling of time. She also calls time a goon, a playful way to say it can be tricky.

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“time's a goon”

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“Time’s a goon, right? Isn’t that the expression?”

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Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” Scotty shook his head. “The goon won.

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I'm not sure if the passage of time affects our core identities so much as reveals them to us.

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“I don't know what happened to me," he said, shaking his head. "I honestly don't." ... "You grew up, Alex.”

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Time is always a component of place; you can't really talk about where without talking about when.

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“So this is it ⎯ what cost me all that time. A man who turned out to be old, a house that…

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[I]t may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history creates the object to justify its gathering.

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I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections.

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When I'm not writing, I feel an awareness that something's missing. If I go a long time, it becomes worse. I become…

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I think the one thing that's changed over time is that I've come to realise, as a fiction writer, the fact that…

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Music makes time fall away like almost nothing else. You hear a song from another moment of your life, and it really…

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The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn't really over, so you're relieved. But then the…

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In the case of 'Goon Squad,' which sold slowly for a long time despite the good reviews, those 'best of 2010' lists…

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“Soiled, forgotten coats of arms were carved above their massive doorways, and these unsettled Ted: such universal, defining symbols made meaningless by…

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I spend so long writing each of my novels that by the time I'm done with one, I'm ready to discover a…

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The music industry is an interesting lens through which to look at change, because it has had such a difficult time adjusting…

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I grew up as a step-kid, always a little outside, always trying hard to follow and fit in. But over time, I've…

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Music and time have such an interesting relationship. Music makes time fall away like almost nothing else. You hear a song from…

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“I wider that all the time - what will happen next" Kitty says. "sometimes, I imagine myself looking back on right now…

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“And sitting there, sea drifting in around them, Wolf had understood for the first time what kind of life he wanted to…

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I think, for one thing, all of us remember those teenage years and those songs that we fell in love with and…

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When I first had a child, I really had a hard time trying to figure out how it was all going to…

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I find myself thinking more about the past as I get older... maybe because there's just more of it to think about.…

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“Think about medieval times, Danny, like when this castle was built. People were constantly seeing ghosts, having visions—they thought Christ was sitting…

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After 9/11, the U.S. seemed vulnerable for the first time in a long time. We were no longer the superpower that no…

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I love how close New York is to Europe; I love the seasons, and I don't think I could live without them.…

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“Thousands of solar panels lift and tilt at the same time, in the same way. I clutch at Dad's arm: "Why are…

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What lists and awards don't measure - and I feel this strongly - is the lasting value of any work of art.…

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Training readers to expect a voice or subject matter from me would interfere with the reinvention I crave. At the same time,…

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I haven't read a lot of science fiction, and I never intend to write it; it seems to happen a little bit…

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We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if…

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I don't really know where my ideas come from. I start with a time and a place. That's what I need to…

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I hope to keep writing journalism as long as I write fiction; it's afforded me such amazing adventures and opportunities. It does…

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“Oh we'll know each other for forever' Bix said. 'The days of losing touch are almost gone.' 'What does that mean? '…

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And it may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history creates the object to justify its gathering, as it…

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“Suddenly I'm scared. That the solar panels were a time machine. That I'm a grown-up woman coming back to this place after…

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“Ted had the uneasy sense that the child was spinning them out as a way of filling the time, distracting them both…

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I did go on safari in Kenya when I was 17, with my mother, stepfather and little brother, and I kept a…

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More by Jennifer Egan

“Behind the desk was nothing but view-the whole city flung out in front of us the way street vendors fling out their towels packed…

I just think that, for my particular personality, feeling slightly invisible is always a help.

Between books, I have to throw out everything I did before, because the tools I've used to write the previous book will not only…

As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist.

I teach intermittently, and while I enjoy it, I don't find that it's a calling for me.

Like all failed experiments, that one taught me something I didn’t expect: one key ingredient of so-called experience is the delusional faith that it…

“Thousands of solar panels lift and tilt at the same time, in the same way. I clutch at Dad's arm: "Why are they doing…

It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to…

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would…

“The seconds pass. I know what’s going on because it’s the same thing that always happens: give me something nice, something I love or…

I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I…

At night, the house thick with sleep, she would peer out her bedroom window at the trees and sky and feel the presence of…

I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections.

Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would…