It's the feeling of being lifted out of my life into another world that is the thrill of writing fiction. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I guess my comfort zone as a writer is diametrically opposed to my comfort zone as a human being. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I always feel very afraid as I work on books. It's just so hard to write a decent book! — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I think playing the glamour card is a disastrous error as a literary writer. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I would go so far as to say that I mostly write terrible things. I mean, my first drafts are so appalling. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I am at my worst trying to write about things that overlap with my life. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
When I had my first child, I didn't write for a year, and I felt when I tried to start again I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
When I pick up a book that's, you know, wreathed in laurels, I expect a lot, and that doesn't give the book… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I've tried writing on a computer thinking it would make me more efficient, but if you're writing crummy stuff, being efficient is… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Reading is a lot like eating for me: If I try to read a book I'm not hungry for, I won't enjoy… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Between books, I have to throw out everything I did before, because the tools I've used to write the previous book will… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
We're [writers] all afraid of writing badly, and there are psychological reasons, like the bad interior of ourselves is somehow being revealed,… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
If you read novels of the 19th century, they're pretty experimental. They take lots of chances; they seem to break a lot… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I'm not a wildly gifted person; I don't play an instrument or speak another language or have great accomplishments in another field,… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I write totally spontaneously. I actually write fiction by hand - that always seems to startle people. I think the reason I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
The average person might articulate them differently, but we all think about interpersonal relationships in one way or another. Writers just express… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I haven't had trouble with writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I write my first draft by hand, at least for fiction. For non-fiction, I write happily on a computer, but for fiction… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I write to escape from my life. Writing about men separates 'me' from my work in a way that I find comforting. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
One area I have a huge amount of trouble in is writing about myself. I get a heavy, almost depressed feeling. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“I haven’t had writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly.” — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
If you can write any way and it's working out, just bow down in gratitude. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
If I'm doing something I know I can pull off, then that's not the book I should be writing. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“You can only write regularly if you're willing to write badly. You can't write regularly and well. One should accept bad writing… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
It's our job as fiction writers to provide a delight that nothing else can - to such a degree that people have… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
It's not that I sit down and write great stuff without thinking, not at all. Most of it is terrible. But the… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I love working with genre. And to me, the Victorian novel is the flourishing ancestor I'm always trying to access when I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I knew as far back as 2001 that I would write a book called 'A Visit From the Goon Squad,' though I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
There are a lot of writers who find a groove and spend a career mining that vein. I seem to be exactly… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I should say, I don't write about myself or my life. So for me, in fiction, it's always been about what I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
My first attempt at writing a novel was horrible. I had to throw it away. But I stuck with the idea, which… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I just think that, for my particular personality, feeling slightly invisible is always a help. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I teach intermittently, and while I enjoy it, I don't find that it's a calling for me. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“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… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
At night, the house thick with sleep, she would peer out her bedroom window at the trees and sky and feel the presence of… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
![“We're [writers] all afraid of writing badly, and there are psychological reasons, like the bad interior of ourselves is somehow being revealed, but we all fear that, and you can't write well if you're not willing to write badly. That's why you have to make writing a habit, so it feels normal and…” quote by Jennifer Egan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c14/jennifer-egan-825_feels_we-re-writers-all-afraid-of-writing-badl_988189.jpg)
