What I've learned is that you get better at writing by writing, and that 'youthful energy' will only get you so far. — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
I started out in the journalism program, but I got kicked out. I wasn't very good at it. It wasn't where I… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
I've never understood people who treat their loved ones worse and with less respect than they would a total stranger or minor… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
No one expects the doormat to stand upright, shake itself off, and amble down the street to seek its own happiness. — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
I think, as writers, our first responsibility is to writing an honest story. Tell the story you want to tell, without pulling… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
Anger is one of those emotions that doesn't follow the letter of the law. It speaks before it thinks. It rears up… — Lynn Coady Anger Copy Share Image
You don't need to have Asperger's to feel bewildered in a culture that relies so heavily on inconsequential chit-chat to grease the… — Lynn Coady Bewildered Copy Share Image
As a novelist, you have to pick your battles. You are tired. You have begun to experience the first ominous tinglings of… — Lynn Coady Battles Copy Share Image
Do not make the writer stand behind a podium. Anything but. A podium reeks of the lecture hall. A music stand, on… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
Considerations of plot do a great deal of heavy lifting when it comes to long-form narrative - readers will overlook the most… — Lynn Coady Books Copy Share Image
Keep a copy of 'Islands in the Stream' by Ernest Hemingway on the left hand side of your desk. Keep Fitzgerald's 'The… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
Let's not confuse traditional behaviours with good manners. The definition of etiquette is gender neutral - it simply means we strive at… — Lynn Coady Etiquette Copy Share Image
Occasionally, chewing over some random letter writer's dilemma, I'll find myself imagining scenarios where the problem could be sidestepped by an innocent… — Lynn Coady Dilemma Copy Share Image
The one thing I've always done as an author is talk to my publicists. Because they have all the best stories -… — Lynn Coady Awesome Copy Share Image
It’s so dangerous to idealize anything, or anyone, or any place, because it gives that thing or person or place a kind… — Lynn Coady Community Copy Share Image
Ever since 'Strange Heaven,' I haven't really reread my old work. Not so much because I don't like the writer I was,… — Lynn Coady Books Copy Share Image
That's what fascinates me about these writers' retreats: You're in these small spaces with small groups of people, and all of the… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
Now, as a writer, the whole world is your nail polish display, and what's more, you can help yourself. A thrilling, colourful… — Lynn Coady Beauty Copy Share Image
We thought we'd name the magazine for the number of bridges within Edmonton's city limits. We thought this number was 18. Much… — Lynn Coady Bridges Copy Share Image
The creative process taps into our deepest subconscious, and we are each of us sex-crazed - products of a shame-based Judeo-Christian culture… — Lynn Coady Creative process Copy Share Image
I'm no atheist - I'm lazy. I really do like hassle-free Sunday mornings. I have a problem with organized religion, so I've… — Lynn Coady Atheist Copy Share Image
I decided a long time ago to be myself and not worry too much about cultivating some kind of personality that didn't… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
It's a moral absolute: If you are going to make a human being, you have a fundamental responsibility to that person -… — Lynn Coady Character Copy Share Image
It's kind of sad, the way we've turned the entertainment of reading into a kind of psychic broccoli - something to feel… — Lynn Coady Children Copy Share Image
This is not necessarily the answer people want, but ultimately, I think writing is an amoral process. Your ultimate responsibility is to… — Lynn Coady Process Copy Share Image
I've always been a sucker for any technology engineered primarily for the entertainment of the human race - even such technology as… — Lynn Coady Entertainment Copy Share Image
Somewhere in our cultural subconscious, we crave these figures that are big and strong and unassailable, like masculine fortresses. It's like how… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
I went into the world confident my tea training would open many doors. And I did particularly well with the Irish and… — Lynn Coady Fitness Copy Share Image
I really do think of it in moral terms. I think that we can't kid ourselves that the storytelling impulse is innocent… — Lynn Coady Character Copy Share Image
Something I've always written about is social expectations: that the eyes of the community are on you all the time, expecting you… — Lynn Coady Community Copy Share Image
When revising, consider whether you have written anything that will hurt or offend a member of your immediate family. If the answer… — Lynn Coady Family Copy Share Image
True adulthood occurs the moment we grasp that the people who raised us do not exist solely for our comfort and reassurance.… — Lynn Coady Adulthood Copy Share Image
Sometimes I pine for the era of Miss Manners, when there were hard and fast rules dictating a well-bred individual's behaviour in… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
One does not become an atheist out of a desire for hassle-free Sunday mornings. People come to atheism because they have a… — Lynn Coady Atheism Copy Share Image
Readers who claim a preference for short-form over long often tell me it's because they don't have time to commit to a… — Lynn Coady Books Copy Share Image
A dominant misconception among believers is that their atheist brethren are a slavering pack of hell-bound debauchees, gleefully wining and wenching their… — Lynn Coady Atheist Copy Share Image
Formalized rules of manners were so great because they left no room for basic human haplessness. They allowed us to circumvent our… — Lynn Coady Feelings Copy Share Image
We like long-form narrative journalism, and we feel there aren't enough high-profile outlets in Canada running the kind of stories we want… — Lynn Coady Copy Share Image
I'm trying to get at something a little transcendent between humans. But at the same time, there's all that baggage: What's beautiful… — Lynn Coady Beautiful Copy Share Image
The process of writing a story isn't about fair. It's about getting to the heart of your story, getting to the truth… — Lynn Coady Heart Copy Share Image
