“The type of person who will always be your friend, for as long as you can stand to keep disappointing her.” — Dan Chaon Friend Copy Share Image
“The circumstances of life-the events of life-the people around me in life-do not make me the way I am. They reveal the… — Dan Chaon Circumstances Copy Share Image
In some ways all of my fiction is like a conversation I'm having with the writers I read when I was first… — Dan Chaon Book Copy Share Image
My main reader was my wife Sheila, and I haven't written a lot since she died. — Dan Chaon Books Copy Share Image
I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them. — Dan Chaon Built Copy Share Image
“The people who control this country are the real gangsters. You know that, right? And if you play by their rules, you're… — Dan Chaon Await-your-reply Copy Share Image
Writing a short story is a little like walking into a dark room, finding a light and turning it on. The light… — Dan Chaon Dark Copy Share Image
I was worried that, as a college teacher, if I wrote too much about intergenerational sex my students would be creeped out. — Dan Chaon College Copy Share Image
“This is one of those things that you can never explain to anyone; that's what I want to explain - one of… — Dan Chaon Connections Copy Share Image
“There is your car and the open road, the fabled lure of random adventure. You stand at the verge, and you could… — Dan Chaon Adventure Copy Share Image
“You want a child because it is a link in the bridge that you are building between the past and the future,… — Dan Chaon Bridge Copy Share Image
I like to sleep about four or five really solid hours at night, and then sometimes take a nap in the afternoon… — Dan Chaon Afternoon Copy Share Image
“It’s called apophenia. It’s the tendency we humans have to find meaning in disconnected information. For example, some people believe in what’s… — Dan Chaon People Believe Copy Share Image
The kind of person I find myself interested in is a cross between being very emotionally complex and very immature. That's what… — Dan Chaon Complexes Copy Share Image
“Let us say that this, all of this, has a logic to it. We understand each other, don't we? Are we not,… — Dan Chaon Logic Copy Share Image
“the professor talking about eigengrau—intrinsic gray, brain gray. It was the color you “saw” when light was totally absent, a kind of… — Dan Chaon Color Copy Share Image
I'm certainly very influenced by what you would call "contemporary headline horror," stuff that is true crime or for one reason or… — Dan Chaon Attention Copy Share Image
“Anxiety!” he said. “I’ve been there, plenty of times! And, you know, it’s particularly hard during the first one, especially, because you’re… — Dan Chaon Anxiety Copy Share Image
“I’ve always felt personally and emotionally closer to the searchers, rather than to the finders…to those who don’t get answers, as opposed… — Dan Chaon Epiclitus Closely Copy Share Image
I think that the way that I write stories is by instinct. You have some basic ideas - a character, or an… — Dan Chaon Character Copy Share Image
“Hesitantly, I touched the stump where my finger used to be. In my mind, something almost remembered itself, but the fumes of… — Dan Chaon Finger Copy Share Image
How can you come to understand your life when even the beginning is so complicated: a single cell imprinted with the color… — Dan Chaon Alive Copy Share Image
“Outside, the sleet had gotten thicker. You could hear it pebbling against the large glass windows, you could see it swirling wildly… — Dan Chaon Night Copy Share Image
I've been reading Peter Straub since I was a teenager, and his work is hardwired into my brain. A Dark Matter contains… — Dan Chaon Brain Copy Share Image
Even when our death is imminent, we carry the image of ourselves moving forward, alive, into the future. — Dan Chaon Alive Copy Share Image
For me, the process of writing a novel happens mostly in your head before you actually start writing. — Dan Chaon Books Copy Share Image
“On the seat beside him, in between him and his father, Ryan's severed hand is resting on a bed of ice in… — Dan Chaon Await-your-reply Copy Share Image
“But maybe it was just a sort of Bluebeard’s wife thing. You can’t help yourself: Open the door, you stupid bitch. Go… — Dan Chaon Help yourself Copy Share Image
“I guess," says Deagle, finally, "I'll just have a pack of Marlboro Lights. That's what I used to smoke when I was… — Dan Chaon Human Copy Share Image
Identity issues are hardwired into the way I think about character - it's almost as if I can't get away from them… — Dan Chaon Character Copy Share Image
I don't think anybody deals well with tragedy or grief, but maybe my characters are particularly bad at it. Which is why… — Dan Chaon Character Copy Share Image
Our sense of self is a kind of construct. It is in some ways like a novel, and it's like a fabric… — Dan Chaon Constructs Copy Share Image
It had occurred to him that if the undead don't realize that they are dead, he might easily be one of them… — Dan Chaon Dead Copy Share Image
Writing about women's sexuality is very scary for me because I'm always afraid I'll get it wrong. — Dan Chaon Afraid Copy Share Image
Fiction is fun because you get to steal an identity and try to make it authentic. — Dan Chaon Fiction Copy Share Image
In the end, there probably isn't much difference between being in love and acting like you're in love. — Dan Chaon Acting Copy Share Image
“As mysterious as the part of himself that was chosen and loved by her, the part of himself that was there only… — Dan Chaon Chosen Copy Share Image
“She looked at me as if I might be one of them a spy from the world of the ignorant.” — Dan Chaon Ignorant Copy Share Image
You can't tell people how to feel when they read your work. You can only hope to connect. — Dan Chaon Feel Copy Share Image
Plot and scene are still the hardest things for me, though I think they're the building blocks of what makes a story… — Dan Chaon Block Copy Share Image
