“By the time I got to high school, I had learned to be more cautious about revealing my dreams. I was reading—and… — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it. — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother's hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
“Trying to write without reading is like venturing out to sea all by yourself in a small boat: lonely and dangerous. Wouldn't… — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
I've always written about animals. I'm still trying to process why that is. — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
Being taken seriously, for a young writer, is a wonderful form of encouragement, but at the same time, I don't think one… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
Kelly Link's prose is conveyed in details so startling and fine that you work up a sweat just waiting for the next… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
“I felt my voice had fallen through and through me, and I couldn't summon it back to tell him or myself anything at all.” — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly. — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man. These… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
“People become very upset,' Gavo tells me, 'when they find out they are going to die' . . . 'They behave very strangely,' he… — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
“By the time I got to high school, I had learned to be more cautious about revealing my dreams. I was reading—and therefore writing—adventure… — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
No matter how grave the secret, how imperative absolute silence, someone would always feel the urge to confess, and an unleashed secret is a… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
“To me, the persistence of my grandfather's rituals meant that he was unchanged, running on discipline and continuance and stoicism. I didn't notice, and… — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
At the end of the day, it's about the reader's attachment to and belief in the magical elements that make or break magical realism. — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
“I started to feel that nagging sense of shame again, an acute awareness of my own inability to share in his [my grandfather's] optimism.” — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young. — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it. — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
