Laura van den Berg

I love noir, quite obviously.

— Laura van den Berg

“On our way out, I noticed”

— Laura van den Berg

I lived in Florida until I was 22.

— Laura van den Berg

America loves a good comeback story!

— Laura van den Berg

I'm such a first-person writer.

— Laura van den Berg

Holy cow - everything about writing a novel is hard for me.

— Laura van den Berg

Paradoxically, the only thing that helps when I'm feeling despairing about writing is to write.

— Laura van den Berg

I am an incorrigible eavesdropper, so I am very much influenced by what I hear.

— Laura van den Berg

“It was my habit to lie to strangers, because how would they know the difference?”

— Laura van den Berg

The short story has been here and is here and will be here as long as we are.

— Laura van den Berg

Culturally, there is often the expectation that women should be repelled by anything too ugly, too violent.

— Laura van den Berg

I love creating mysteries, but I am terrible at solving them.

— Laura van den Berg

I know some writers that have a million novel ideas, but I don't.

— Laura van den Berg

A sense of play is important when I'm writing, and so messing around with, say, a magic routine can feel like play,…

— Laura van den Berg

Since childhood, I've been a fan of mysteries - 'Nancy Drew' lovers unite! - but 'Vertigo' struck me as an entirely new…

— Laura van den Berg

Like many American readers, I was first introduced to Magda Szabo's work when New York Review Books reissued the Hungarian master's profound…

— Laura van den Berg

“When you're married, our counselor had told us, happiness is like a joint banking account; it becomes full or depleted in tandem.”

— Laura van den Berg

Often, contrasts bring art to life: the bright speck of paint on a dark canvas; the tightrope walk between humor and tragedy.

— Laura van den Berg

A collection is, by my lights, a chance to build a universe, an overarching ecosystem. But it's common enough to encounter a…

— Laura van den Berg

It's not easy to craft a novel that gradually erodes the reader's comprehension of the world, of reality and identity and the…

— Laura van den Berg

If we can think of a place, the physicality of a place, as a kind of 'material,' I would say the landscape…

— Laura van den Berg

I think where a writer falls on the realism/non-realism continuum has a lot to do with their sight, as in, 'This is…

— Laura van den Berg

As for me, I was a lonely kid, with few close friends until I was an adult - even when I might…

— Laura van den Berg

As a genre, the best horror poses central human questions - Who can you trust? What is the cost of our secrets?…

— Laura van den Berg

In the world of the American creative writing workshop, I've encountered teachers who are tempted to place, or have actually placed, a…

— Laura van den Berg

I think that one thing about teaching is you're trying to communicate your thoughts about a work to a group of people…

— Laura van den Berg

As a young writer, I was sort of sailing around trying to 'find my voice' - for lack of a better term…

— Laura van den Berg

I think we're often guilty of gravitating towards the familiar. Even if we recognize that certain patterns are unsatisfying and destructive, there…

— Laura van den Berg

“Winds shake the leaves and for a moment I smell smoke. I concentrate on the scent, but it vanishes into the aroma…

— Laura van den Berg

“I asked why we kept trying for so long, why we even came to Paris, if we both knew we never really…

— Laura van den Berg

“I was raised in the desert and always appreciated the way its landscape gives you a chance to see what's coming. In…

— Laura van den Berg

I love Javier Marias; I love his novel 'Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me.'

— Laura van den Berg

“I like having a job where I get to wear a mask all day.”

— Laura van den Berg

The past is an open wound, a life force busily shaping an increasingly bewildering present.

— Laura van den Berg

Havana is a uniquely complicated city and contains a great many histories.

— Laura van den Berg

Anxiety and doubt are among my biggest struggles as a writer.

— Laura van den Berg

I tend to be drawn to characters who are not rule followers, who behave in unexpected and unusual ways.

— Laura van den Berg

I have no problem quitting things, because I have a horror of boredom.

— Laura van den Berg

We're all trying to figure out on a daily basis what kind of person to be, aren't we? I am, at least.

— Laura van den Berg

“Over time, we became less sure we were something the other wanted to hold on to.”

— Laura van den Berg