---
title: "33 Way Quotes By Jennifer Egan"
description: "33 Way quotes by Jennifer Egan. Plus more from Jennifer Egan and more Way sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/716/jennifer-egan-825_ambivalence_i-think-ethical-ambivalence-is-a-kind-of_2567375.jpg"
---

> [“I think ethical ambivalence is a kind of innoculation, a way of excusing yourself in advance for something you actually want to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-think-ethical-ambivalence-is-a-kind-of-innoculation-a-way-of/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/716/jennifer-egan-825_ambivalence_i-think-ethical-ambivalence-is-a-kind-of_2567375.jpg)

> [There are so many ways to go wrong. All we've got are metaphors, and they're never exactly right. You can never just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/there-are-so-many-ways-to-go-wrong-all-we-ve-got-are-metaphors-and/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/105/jennifer-egan-825_metaphor_there-are-so-many-ways-to-go-wrong-all-w_984157.jpg)

> [That adage about 'Write what you know' is basically the opposite of the way I function. I write about what I'm curious…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/that-adage-about-write-what-you-know-is-basically-the-opposite-of-the/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c53/jennifer-egan-825_adages_that-adage-about-write-what-you-know-is_3153293.jpg)

> [We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/we-live-in-a-moment-and-a-culture-when-reading-is-really-endangered/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/759/jennifer-egan-825_culture_we-live-in-a-moment-and-a-culture-when-r_1583129.jpg)

> [If you can write any way and it's working out, just bow down in gratitude.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/if-you-can-write-any-way-and-it-s-working-out-just-bow-down-in/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71d/jennifer-egan-825_bow_if-you-can-write-any-way-and-it-s-workin_1880957.jpg)

> [The part of the process that's exciting to me is feeling like I'm in a place I've never been before, in every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/the-part-of-the-process-that-s-exciting-to-me-is-feeling-like-i-m-in/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dff/jennifer-egan-825_exciting_the-part-of-the-process-that-s-exciting_218701.jpg)

> ['Look at Me' started with Rockford, Illinois and New York and the question of how much image culture was changing our inner…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/look-at-me-started-with-rockford-illinois-and-new-york-and-the/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b60/jennifer-egan-825_abstract_look-at-me-started-with-rockford-illinoi_3159806.jpg)

> [The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/the-answers-were-maddeningly-absent-it-was-like-trying-to-remember-a/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/547/jennifer-egan-825_absent_the-answers-were-maddeningly-absent-it-w_1947621.jpg)

> [The way that Dickens structured his books has a form that we most readily recognize now from, say, the great T.V. series,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/the-way-that-dickens-structured-his-books-has-a-form-that-we-most/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/192/jennifer-egan-825_books_the-way-that-dickens-structured-his-book_1790797.jpg)

> [There's something very strange about associating me with that prize. I had hoped for it in a more directed way as a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/there-s-something-very-strange-about-associating-me-with-that-prize-i/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/812/jennifer-egan-825_fiction_there-s-something-very-strange-about-ass_2768511.jpg)

> [I'm not reading what I write when I wrote. It's an unconscious outpouring that's a mess, and it's many, many steps away…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-m-not-reading-what-i-write-when-i-wrote-it-s-an-unconscious/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/968/jennifer-egan-825_anything_i-m-not-reading-what-i-write-when-i-wrot_684670.jpg)

> [Structural dissatisfaction: Returning to circumstances that once pleased you, after having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/structural-dissatisfaction-returning-to-circumstances-that-once/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/43a/jennifer-egan-825_circumstances_structural-dissatisfaction-returning-to_621612.jpg)

> [I don't really begin with ideas about genre. I certainly wrote a gothic novel, 'The Keep,' that conformed to and, in some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-don-t-really-begin-with-ideas-about-genre-i-certainly-wrote-a/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9c/jennifer-egan-825_genre_i-don-t-really-begin-with-ideas-about-ge_2689295.jpg)

> [I'm very interested in the way the Internet has changed teenage life. Obviously it's very different from when I grew up, when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-m-very-interested-in-the-way-the-internet-has-changed-teenage-life/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b92/jennifer-egan-825_age-life_i-m-very-interested-in-the-way-the-inter_1426901.jpg)

> [I write fiction longhand. That's not so much about rejecting technology as being unable to write fiction on a computer for some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-write-fiction-longhand-that-s-not-so-much-about-rejecting/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/765/jennifer-egan-825_blind_i-write-fiction-longhand-that-s-not-so-m_2293957.jpg)

> [happened as I listened: I felt pain. Not in my head, not in my arm, not in my leg; everywhere at once.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/happened-as-i-listened-i-felt-pain-not-in-my-head-not-in-my-arm-not/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/jennifer-egan-825_arms_happened-as-i-listened-i-felt-pain-not-i_2334946.jpg)

> [I write my first draft by hand, at least for fiction. For non-fiction, I write happily on a computer, but for fiction…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-write-my-first-draft-by-hand-at-least-for-fiction-for-non-fiction-i/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1af/jennifer-egan-825_achieve_i-write-my-first-draft-by-hand-at-least_559383.jpg)

> [The book that is the closest genetically to 'Goon Squad' is 'Look at Me.' It has the futuristic element - although, freakishly,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/the-book-that-is-the-closest-genetically-to-goon-squad-is-look-at-me/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c38/jennifer-egan-825_about_the-book-that-is-the-closest-genetically_752240.jpg)

> [Rebecca was an academic star. Her new book was on the phenomenon of word casings, a term she'd invented for words that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/rebecca-was-an-academic-star-her-new-book-was-on-the-phenomenon-of/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/690/jennifer-egan-825_academic_rebecca-was-an-academic-star-her-new-boo_991269.jpg)

> [When the clock stops on a life, all things emanating from it become precious, finite, and cordoned off for preservation. Each aspect…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/when-the-clock-stops-on-a-life-all-things-emanating-from-it-become/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1dd/jennifer-egan-825_alive_when-the-clock-stops-on-a-life-all-thing_382080.jpg)

> [The average person might articulate them differently, but we all think about interpersonal relationships in one way or another. Writers just express…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/the-average-person-might-articulate-them-differently-but-we-all-think/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40f/jennifer-egan-825_average_the-average-person-might-articulate-them_3196432.jpg)

> [I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-was-a-stepchild-in-two-different-families-the-hardest-thing-about-2/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/01c/jennifer-egan-825_about_i-was-a-stepchild-in-two-different-famil_158440.jpg)

> [In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/in-a-way-i-started-goon-squad-not-even-realizing-i-was-writing-a-book/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/62c/jennifer-egan-825_book_in-a-way-i-started-goon-squad-not-even-r_2546803.jpg)

> [In a way, I'm always trying to do something I'm not qualified to do. So I feel that lack of qualification. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/in-a-way-i-m-always-trying-to-do-something-i-m-not-qualified-to-do-so/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/175/jennifer-egan-825_always_in-a-way-i-m-always-trying-to-do-somethi_492476.jpg)

> [I grew up as a step-kid, always a little outside, always trying hard to follow and fit in. But over time, I've…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-grew-up-as-a-step-kid-always-a-little-outside-always-trying-hard-to/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/524/jennifer-egan-825_deep_i-grew-up-as-a-step-kid-always-a-little_810400.jpg)

> [As a journalist, I have wanted very much to find a way to write about the music industry, and it's been frustrating…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/as-a-journalist-i-have-wanted-very-much-to-find-a-way-to-write-about/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cae/jennifer-egan-825_find_as-a-journalist-i-have-wanted-very-much_3126167.jpg)

> [A sense of that kind of narrative movement that we experience online could have been in my mind easily, though not consciously.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/a-sense-of-that-kind-of-narrative-movement-that-we-experience-online/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/447/jennifer-egan-825_could-have-been_a-sense-of-that-kind-of-narrative-moveme_1175050.jpg)

> [I often felt like that Mr. Magoo figure in the cartoon, who just wanders through traffic, and somehow it never hits him.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-often-felt-like-that-mr-magoo-figure-in-the-cartoon-who-just/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5da/jennifer-egan-825_childhood_i-often-felt-like-that-mr-magoo-figure-i_1493758.jpg)

> [I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-was-a-stepchild-in-two-different-families-the-hardest-thing-about/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f0d/jennifer-egan-825_different_i-was-a-stepchild-in-two-different-famil_114896.jpg)

> [I think, for one thing, all of us remember those teenage years and those songs that we fell in love with and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-think-for-one-thing-all-of-us-remember-those-teenage-years-and/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/627/jennifer-egan-825_age_i-think-for-one-thing-all-of-us-remember_1059397.jpg)

> [People define themselves to some degree by the music that they listened to as teens. My mom had Elvis. Me, I had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/people-define-themselves-to-some-degree-by-the-music-that-they/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a69/jennifer-egan-825_bands_people-define-themselves-to-some-degree_164846.jpg)

> [To some degree, we're all thinking about the same things. It's the zeitgeist. The trick, in a way, as a writer, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/to-some-degree-we-re-all-thinking-about-the-same-things-it-s-the/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/734/jennifer-egan-825_culture_to-some-degree-we-re-all-thinking-about_3116423.jpg)

> [A bit of theory as we settle down for lunch: the waiter's treatment of Kitty is actually a kind of sandwich, with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/a-bit-of-theory-as-we-settle-down-for-lunch-the-waiter-s-treatment-of/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b5/jennifer-egan-825_abnormal_a-bit-of-theory-as-we-settle-down-for-lu_1394478.jpg)

## Other authors on Way

## 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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/behind-the-desk-was-nothing-but-view-the-whole-city-flung-out-in/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [I just think that, for my particular personality, feeling slightly invisible is always a help.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-just-think-that-for-my-particular-personality-feeling-slightly/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/between-books-i-have-to-throw-out-everything-i-did-before-because-the/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/as-a-reader-and-a-writer-i-m-happiest-when-apparently-mutually/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [I teach intermittently, and while I enjoy it, I don't find that it's a calling for me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-teach-intermittently-and-while-i-enjoy-it-i-don-t-find-that-it-s-a/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/like-all-failed-experiments-that-one-taught-me-something-i-didn-t/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/thousands-of-solar-panels-lift-and-tilt-at-the-same-time-in-the-same/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/it-was-the-hat-he-looked-sweet-in-the-hat-how-could-a-man-in-a-fuzzy/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-was-a-stepchild-in-two-different-families-the-hardest-thing-about/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/the-seconds-pass-i-know-what-s-going-on-because-it-s-the-same-thing/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-had-this-idea-that-i-could-hire-myself-out-as-a-person-to-go-on/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [At night, the house thick with sleep, she would peer out her bedroom window at the trees and sky and feel the presence of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/at-night-the-house-thick-with-sleep-she-would-peer-out-her-bedroom/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-number-my-drafts-and-by-the-time-a-book-is-done-i-ll-have-75-or-80/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/read-at-the-level-at-which-you-want-to-write-reading-is-the/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

> [I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-egan/i-was-a-stepchild-in-two-different-families-the-hardest-thing-about-2/)

[Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-egan/)

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                        "text": "'Look at Me' started with Rockford, Illinois and New York and the question of how much image culture was changing our inner lives. That's an abstract idea; you don't think that's going to be a rocking work of fiction, but it seemed to fuse in a way that was interesting.",
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                        "text": "There's something very strange about associating me with that prize. I had hoped for it in a more directed way as a journalist. Somehow as a journalist you know there are Pulitzers out there and you can work hard and get one. To win it for Fiction seems unbelievable.",
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                        "text": "Structural dissatisfaction: Returning to circumstances that once pleased you, after having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding that you can no longer tolerate them.",
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                        "text": "I'm very interested in the way the Internet has changed teenage life. Obviously it's very different from when I grew up, when there weren't even answering machines, much less computers. I was telling my children this the other day, and the little one said, \"Did you have electricity, Mom?\" and I was like okay, enough, kid.",
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                        "text": "I write fiction longhand. That's not so much about rejecting technology as being unable to write fiction on a computer for some reason. I don't think I would write it on a typewriter either. I write in a very blind gut instinctive way. It just doesn't feel right. There's a physical connection. And then in nonfiction that's not the case at all. I can't even imagine writing nonfiction by hand.",
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                        "text": "happened as I listened: I felt pain. Not in my head, not in my arm, not in my leg; everywhere at once. I told myself there was no difference between being “inside” and being “outside,” that it all came down to X’s and O’s that could be acquired in any number of different ways, but the pain increased to a point where I thought I might collapse, and I limped away.",
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                        "text": "The book that is the closest genetically to 'Goon Squad' is 'Look at Me.' It has the futuristic element - although, freakishly, almost every aspect I invented has come to pass in some way, including the terrorist who fantasies about blowing up the World Trade Centre. That was extremely uncomfortable. The book came out on the week of 9/11.",
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                        "text": "Rebecca was an academic star. Her new book was on the phenomenon of word casings, a term she'd invented for words that no longer had meaning outside quotation marks. English was full of these empty words--\"friend\" and \"real\" and \"story\" and \"change\"--words that had been shucked of their meanings and reduced to husks. Some, like \"identity\" and \"search\" and \"cloud,\" had clearly been drained of life by their Web usage. With others, the reasons were more complex; how had \"American\" become an ironic term? How had \"democracy\" come to be used in an arch, mocking way?",
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                        "text": "When the clock stops on a life, all things emanating from it become precious, finite, and cordoned off for preservation. Each aspect of the dead person is removed from the flux of the everyday, which, of course, is where we miss him most. The quarantine around death makes it feel unlucky and wrong--a freakish incursion--and the dead, thus quarantined, come to seem more dead than they already are… Borrowing from the dead is a way of keeping them engaged in life's daily transactions--in other words, alive.",
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                        "text": "The average person might articulate them differently, but we all think about interpersonal relationships in one way or another. Writers just express that in different ways and capture it in different ways. To some degree, we're all thinking about the same things. It's the zeitgeist. The trick, in a way, as a writer, is to hope that your interests in some sense link up with the culture around you.",
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                        "text": "I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didn't exist.",
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                        "text": "In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a few stories to stall before starting this other book that I wanted to write - or thought I wanted to write: I still haven't written it.",
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                        "text": "In a way, I'm always trying to do something I'm not qualified to do. So I feel that lack of qualification. And I'm scared. And I have a tendency to think things may not/probably won't work out. That's my basic mindset.",
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                        "text": "I grew up as a step-kid, always a little outside, always trying hard to follow and fit in. But over time, I've come to feel that my tendency toward self-erasure is a deep and real part of me. I think I'd be this way no matter how I grew up.",
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                        "text": "As a journalist, I have wanted very much to find a way to write about the music industry, and it's been frustrating to me that that's never worked out.",
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                        "text": "A sense of that kind of narrative movement that we experience online could have been in my mind easily, though not consciously. I do rely so much on my unconscious, the way I write my stuff the way I do. I let my unconscious work. I have better ideas that way and more interesting work.",
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                        "text": "I often felt like that Mr. Magoo figure in the cartoon, who just wanders through traffic, and somehow it never hits him. I kind of feel that way about my whole childhood: Why do I have a normal life?",
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                        "text": "I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didnt exist.",
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                        "text": "I think, for one thing, all of us remember those teenage years and those songs that we fell in love with and the music scene that we were part of. So, in a certain way, music cuts through time like almost nothing else. You know, it makes us feel like we're back in an earlier moment.",
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                        "text": "People define themselves to some degree by the music that they listened to as teens. My mom had Elvis. Me, I had 'The Who' and later punk rock. Kids who came up in the '80s had other songs and bands. It's a way of placing ourselves culturally and temporally.",
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                        "text": "To some degree, we're all thinking about the same things. It's the zeitgeist. The trick, in a way, as a writer, is to hope that your interests in some sense link up with the culture around you.",
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                        "text": "A bit of theory as we settle down for lunch: the waiter's treatment of Kitty is actually a kind of sandwich, with the bottom bread being the bored and slightly effete way he normally acts with customers, the middle being the crazed and abnormal way he feels around this famous nineteen-year-old girl, and the top bread being his attempt to contain and conceal this alien middle layer with some mode of behavior that at least approximates the bottom layer of boredom and effeteness that is his norm.",
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