The way some were entrapped into lives of prostitution, the way that something like marriage could rob them of their rights. — Alexander Chee Marriage Copy Share Image
Writers aren't born, they're made - from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine. — Alexander Chee Born Copy Share Image
I was trying to make a novel about something no one wanted to read about into something they couldn't put down or… — Alexander Chee Books Copy Share Image
Whenever people say a coincidence in a novel is implausible, I think, Do I have a story for you. — Alexander Chee Books Copy Share Image
I realized that my identity as a novelist was private. Only I knew how much of a novelist I was! — Alexander Chee I realized Copy Share Image
“Nothing to fear from a fate that was already yours, then, except, perhaps, that it would never leave you.” — Alexander Chee Destiny Copy Share Image
“Why was there never an opera that ended with a soprano who was free?” — Alexander Chee Ended Copy Share Image
The myth works to make the very real things people don't want to look at visible for them. — Alexander Chee Looks Copy Share Image
I knew it was a risk but what I was after was a novel that is about the feeling that comes with… — Alexander Chee Books Copy Share Image
The secret to being a rider in the hippodrome wasn't that you must be agile, or that you must be good with… — Alexander Chee Be good Copy Share Image
One of my big inspirations was Céleste Mogador. She was a courtesan who wrote her memoirs in order to pay off her… — Alexander Chee Bigs Copy Share Image
As writer pay declined and teacher pay also, we all started hanging out online. You could say online social networks cheapen our… — Alexander Chee Hanging out Copy Share Image
Most written work is a conversation between the editor and the writer, that the writer essentially fulfills in public, and the editor… — Alexander Chee Communication Copy Share Image
As I get ready to buy a new computer, I'm stunned at all the many micro drafts, of different chapters and scenes… — Alexander Chee Chapters Copy Share Image
I had a naiveté that I would remember the things that I had written already, but I was getting lost in the… — Alexander Chee Forests Copy Share Image
The idea of a talent that was bigger than an artist's ability to choose to use it, that would dictate the artist's… — Alexander Chee Ability Copy Share Image
“The storm is a glazier. Then fog passes through, touches the cold trees to add to the ice already there. Here the… — Alexander Chee Storm Copy Share Image
It's my experience that people don't think of fiction writing as being as intellectually serious as other kinds of writing in academia… — Alexander Chee Academia Copy Share Image
Throughout my reading life, I've enjoyed many memorable meals-if only fictionally. The oysters at dinner near the beginning of Anna Karenina, the… — Alexander Chee Anna Copy Share Image
“When I was a boy and I sang, my voice felt to me like a leak sprung from a small and secret… — Alexander Chee Let Voice Copy Share Image
“Sappho isn't really meant to be read. It's meant to be sung and there were dances for the songs, also. Sappho was… — Alexander Chee Ancient greek Copy Share Image
“You ought to know, you were my best friend. You were. I know you loved me. I loved you. No one should… — Alexander Chee Best friend Copy Share Image
Every now and then, you find a book that feels like it was keyed to your DNA. — Alexander Chee Book Copy Share Image
With my family background - my parents were both activists - writing about culture and politics came naturally. — Alexander Chee Activist Copy Share Image
“The word for her in Paris, a courtesan who had made it to the stage, was grue—it happened so often there was… — Alexander Chee Courtesan Copy Share Image
“None of the young women who wanted her position knew what her position was.” — Alexander Chee Women Copy Share Image
The ideal editor will hold you to the best of yourself in the piece. — Alexander Chee Editor Copy Share Image
“Writers aren't born, they're made--from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine. And sometimes tutelage.” — Alexander Chee Caffeine Copy Share Image
Each source that I read, I would look through the bibliography and the footnotes, and use that as a map for the… — Alexander Chee Bibliography Copy Share Image
“I was now both the secret and the keeper of it, but the idea that I could not know what is was… — Alexander Chee Keeper Copy Share Image
Everyone would tell me they couldn't identify with sexual abuse. No one says they can't identify with the tales of the Greek… — Alexander Chee Abuse Copy Share Image
My interest in women's voices started when I was in the boys' choir and we were singing in opera choruses. That was… — Alexander Chee Amazed Copy Share Image
“Ever since I’d been old enough to know about virtue in a woman, it had seemed like a bull’s-eye painted on my… — Alexander Chee Old enough Copy Share Image
I have lived for a long time inside a series of coincidences that most people would find implausible in a novel. — Alexander Chee Coincidence Copy Share Image
PhD, MFA, self-taught—the only things you must have to become a writer are the stamina to continue and a wily, cagey heart… — Alexander Chee Faces Copy Share Image
I've been told it's hard to write about singing. I didn't realize that going into it. I might not have tried if… — Alexander Chee Hard Copy Share Image
“There was a question I wanted answered more than I wanted anything else, and it could take my life to answer it.… — Alexander Chee Life Copy Share Image
“I resented the idea of being talented. I couldn’t respect it — in my experience, no one else did. Being called talented… — Alexander Chee Honor Copy Share Image
Characters to me are like sonnets, they have limits that you obey which allow a force to enter in, an invention that… — Alexander Chee Books Copy Share Image
I grew up treating a life as a writer as a career in letters, one devoted to many kinds of writing. And… — Alexander Chee Careers Copy Share Image
