I'm not much interested in my own self when I write. I'm interested in what I observe out there, what's going on… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I can't personally drink or fight too much nowadays because I have to be perky in the morning in order to write. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
You can't beat a good sonnet, and you can write a sonnet without being married to the damned thing. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
The truth is I tried to write for years and I wasn't very good. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
The best and easiest lesson for me was to learn that writing is mostly hard work. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Maybe the hardest lesson is the one I have to learn over and over again, that each story is its own animal,… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I was unhappy and I couldn't figure out what was the matter. And he told me to go take a writing course.… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I think back when I was kind of a crappy writer, I really did know my time was better spent working and… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
That's why I have to be a fiction writer, because I can't remember what just happened or where I went last week… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Writing is so wrapped up in ego, but with math one is just trying to get it right, although you're often wrong.… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
The great thing about fiction is that I don't have to settle on an answer to any troubling question, or even a… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
In fact, when I finally realized I was really going to write, when I was about thirty-four, I was working on my… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I read stories aloud at every stage. I listen to my writer friends when they kindly offer criticism. I listen to my… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Nobody tells young writers it's okay if you're not very good, you'll get better. So I just thought I'm not very good,… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
My normal writing day involves three hours of actual writing, before noon, and the rest is just feeding the writing. There is… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Any of us who listen to the news or listen to stories our neighbors tell are accustomed to violence. We have to… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I loved writing for the school newspaper. I liked to report and interview people, but I really liked to write columns, funny… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I wasn't writing stories with the intention of creating a particular collection. I simply wrote stories, and then discovered common themes among… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I think by writing about a place with great specificity, you manage to make it universal. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I realized that I was writing about folks with lots of skills, especially fix-it skills and survival skills, who were nonetheless not… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I thought that you had to learn to write by yourself and if you couldn't do it, then you were out of… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I do different work, teaching and running around visiting universities and bookstores, and that prevents me from writing. But it's nice to… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I mostly write about the working poor. Somehow, they're not being written about much anymore. I'm very interested in people who are… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Weirdly the writing experience has not really changed that much except it used to be that I was busy because I had… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I love writing about men. To get by in the world you have to know how men think. Not that all guys… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
In fact, when I finally realized I was really going to write, when I was about thirty-four, I was working on my Ph.D. in… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I'm of the people in the bar and the people in my stories. They are my tribe. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
That's where I live, a junkyard in a neighborhood of junkyards. We have three tractors from the 1940s and '50s, several old pickup trucks,… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
A Life in Men is a joyful, ambitious novel that is also an adventure traversing three continents, as well as a meditation on love,… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Eighty percent of all novels are bought by women, or so I've heard. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Any of us who listen to the news or listen to stories our neighbors tell are accustomed to violence. We have to decide then… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
In a regular class I don't focus on the form, but I think that focus is helpful for brainstorming and coming up with ideas… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness. — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
Cocoa-buttered girls were stretched out on the public beach in apparently random alignments, but maybe if a weather satellite zoomed in on one of… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
I think back when I was kind of a crappy writer, I really did know my time was better spent working and having adventures… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
The great thing about fiction is that I don't have to settle on an answer to any troubling question, or even a solution. I… — Bonnie Jo Campbell Copy Share Image
