All Jeff VanderMeer Quotes
- Angela Carter's fiction blew me away and really instilled a passion for writing, bolstered by Vladimir Nabokov. But in general, I can't point to any… Always Loved
- You can be deeply non-serious and still focused, disciplined, and on task. Deeply
- My best time to write is right after coffee and breakfast - four eggs because, full disclosure: I'm really a komodo dragon - and that's… Awake
- Dreams, though, are just one kind of inspiration - no more or less special than something in a newspaper article or from the world around… Article
- If the reader enters a kind of immersive experience reading a book, then I have to enter a kind of immersive state to do my… Best
- My mom is an artist and my own fiction is deeply visual. Artist
- A dream inspiring a story is different than placing a description of a dream in a story. When you describe a character's dream, it has… All
- Even a dream as inspiration doesn't mean anything unless you then find that it's sparked an actual story with a plot. Actual
- The best visual book I can think of is Lynda Barry's What It Is, but although I refer to it all the time it's not… All
- Cross-pollination and "contamination" is really important to the health of fiction, and sometimes it's a literal conversation, too, in that writers who might never otherwise… Anthologies
- I also am not particularly risk-averse - I don't mind jumping off a cliff if I trust the people who've told me they'll catch me… Averse
- Angela Carter, Leonora Carrington, even nonsurrealists like Kafka and Nabokov - writers like these, who create paths between the firmly grounded and flights of fantasy,… Angela
- When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look… Begins
- I believe the best creative writing lessons live in the specifics. Believe
- I've always wrestled with the difference between plot and structure, and after re-reading a lot of writing books I realized I wasn't alone. Alone
- Literary influences are harder for me to point to, because mostly it's a mulch of all of my past reading. All
- The world is a mysterious place and the very limitation of our senses in exploring it means we are sometimes aware of there being something… Aware
- I like to go through the zine sections of local bookstores when on the road and have found a lot of really great kind of… All
- One of the most important things as a writing instructor is to provide a lot of different entry points to subjects. To not impose your… Entry
- Across all of the universe of creative lying, whether you believe in the art of it or the entertainment of it, or both, a certain… Across
- One thing about beginning writers is that they don't really always know their own strengths and weaknesses - you might think you're bad at characterization,… Always Know
- If I wasn't a writer, I don't know what I'd be. Probably a marine biologist or something. Biologist
- My singing ability is zilch. Ability
- What I envy about musicians is, they have this more direct relationship with the audience. They don't have to go through words. Sure, the lyrics… Actual
- My mother is an artist, and I have a strong visual sense. I almost always choose the cover art for my books. Almost Always