“The solution to entrapment in the narcissistic hothouse of self is to not relinquish autobiographical writing, but to expand the self by bringing one's curiosity to interface with more and more history and the present world.” — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
Have fun writing, because it enhances both the writer's and reader's experience. — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
A personal essay often includes some or a lot of personal confession. That makes the reader feel less lonely in their confusion and darkness. — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
In new work, we need to see the shadow, however faint, of previous literary effort. — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
Why am I attracted to all these lying quotes all of a sudden? Here’s another one. This one by Phillip Lopate: ‘(Children know it… — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
In the best nonfiction, it seems to me, you're always made aware that you are being engaged with a supple mind at work. The… — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
The dinner party is a suburban form of entertainment. Its spread in our big cities represents an insidious Fifth Column suburbanization of the metropolis. — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
“Fornicating is like parenting: no matter how you do it, you have the guilty sense that somewhere other people are doing it more correctly.” — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
“The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work than I can think of than taking… — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
I imagined a psychic pain growing inside him (myself) that demanded some physical outlet. Suicide must have been his attempt to give Pain a… — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
Think of a dinner party as a club of revolutionaries, a technocratic elite whose social interactions that night are a dry run for some… — Phillip Lopate Copy Share Image
