Ann Beattie Quotes

38 quotes in 539 categories

• I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure.…
• The admiration of another writer’s work is almost in inverse proportion to similarities in style.
• Women are obviously much more discriminated against than men in many ways.
• Any life will seem dramatic if you omit mention of most of it.
• You put a character out there and you're in their power. You're in trouble if they're in yours.
• What will happen can't be stopped. Aim for Grace.
• Falling in Place was meant to be very much rooted in a place and time, and music was a part of that.
• It's gratifying that it does; I love to give readings.
• When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how…
• When I lived in New York, not only did I have safety locks on the door but I had the music going, keeping the city…
• It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.
• I don't even correct people when they mispronounce my name now.
• Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock,…
• You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as…
• People forget years and remember moments.
• It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate…
• I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often…
• I must say also that it's never worked to my disadvantage that I have long, blond hair.
• I think I write about things that are mysterious to me.
• Nobody can assume that, to a writer, everything is off-limits.

Browse Ann Beattie Quotes by Category