Liza Campbell

I am a tragically bad artist.

— Liza Campbell

I've spent many a day worrying that I will never be able to write again!

— Liza Campbell

I do think that it is one of the eternal questions about art, though - is all art intrinsically selfish?

— Liza Campbell

When I finished the book [The Dissemblers], I sent it to one billion agents, and got one billion rejections.

— Liza Campbell

I am currently in nursing school, so one day I will be both a nurse and a writer.

— Liza Campbell

The book [The Dissemblers] officially came out two weeks after my thirtieth birthday...am I still young?

— Liza Campbell

I lived in New Mexico until I was seventeen, and honestly I've been homesick ever since I left.

— Liza Campbell

One thing that was inspiring to me in my research about [Georgia] O'Keeffe was to learn that in addition to her success…

— Liza Campbell

I hope to work through disappointment and frustration with as much grace as [Georgia] O'Keeffe did, and I hope to have the…

— Liza Campbell

I find that time constraints actually make me more productive, and "real world" experiences provide a lot of inspiration to write.

— Liza Campbell

Does art play a role in the greater good of society, or does it just promote the satisfaction of the artist? I…

— Liza Campbell

[Ivy Wilkes] loves [Georgia] O'Keeffe's work, but is not satisfied by just looking at the paintings; she wants the painting to be…

— Liza Campbell

I read letters and journal entries by [Georgia] O'Keeffe (which were infinitely more useful than any critical analysis of her work).

— Liza Campbell

I was loosely aware that most of my characters were fundamentally selfish people, but I didn't intentionally make that a theme.

— Liza Campbell

I started writing about New Mexico in an autobiography class I was taking for school, and realized that it was very inspiring…

— Liza Campbell

Ivy [Wilkes] does exhibit a certain impatience at the beginning of the book [The Dissemblers]. She doesn't want to wait through years…

— Liza Campbell

I did make several trips to the very wonderful [Georgia] O'Keeffe museum. Besides the art (my favorite paintings are from her Pelvis…

— Liza Campbell

When Ivy [Wilkes] begins her work in forgery, she doesn't yet know the toll that it will take on her own original…

— Liza Campbell

At the beginning of the book [The Dissemblers], Ivy [Wilkes] has a long way to go in order to achieve self-sufficiency. Although…

— Liza Campbell

I was only loosely aware of [Georgia] O'Keeffe's work. Primarily, I had seen her famous paintings of skulls with flowers, which are…

— Liza Campbell

Now I am as big of an [ Georgia] O'Keeffe admirer as Ivy [Wilkes] is, but that came through writing the book.

— Liza Campbell

The motivation to paint seems more pure, or at least more personal, when the artist is doing it for herself.

— Liza Campbell

Yet [Georgia O'Keeffe ] always stayed true to her vision, and was at times uncompromising in following the path she saw for herself.

— Liza Campbell

From beginning to end, the novel [Dissemblers] took about three and a half years to write. I didn't write it chronologically.

— Liza Campbell

I tend to only write productively for one to two hours per day, so there is plenty of time left over for…

— Liza Campbell

Publishing requires a lot of persistence and a fair amount of luck.

— Liza Campbell

I did take one drawing class in school, but for this book I spent a lot of time talking to painters and…

— Liza Campbell

I was at an art museum with my parents, and was quite taken with a [Vincent] Van Gogh painting. I stood admiring…

— Liza Campbell

I was envious of [Vincent] Van Gogh because I could never make a painting that beautiful! (Ridiculous, I know.) That was when…

— Liza Campbell

I knew the basic outline of the novel [The Dissemblers] and would write whatever scene of the book I felt particularly excited…

— Liza Campbell

Writing a book set in New Mexico was partially a way to express my own love for the state, and partially a…

— Liza Campbell

Finally, I found a wonderful agent who wanted to work with me, and she sent it to one billion publishers and received…

— Liza Campbell

At the end, I cobbled scenes all together and smoothed out the transitions as much as possible. Incidentally, I would not recommend…

— Liza Campbell

This was my first novel [The Dissemblers ]. I've never seriously written short stories, and actually find short stories much more intimidating…

— Liza Campbell

I'm working on a novel about a girl who grows up in the circus and her relationship with her father, who grew…

— Liza Campbell

Because Ivy [Wilkes] is just starting out as an artist, I wanted to focus on [Georgia] O'Keeffe's experiences when she was just…

— Liza Campbell