Books Quote by Ottessa Moshfegh

I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages…

— Elmore Leonard

“Writers use both their blood and their brains to explore the darkest recesses of their pooling self. Writing allows us to harness the whimsy…

— Kilroy J. Oldster

I want to say that what is cool about writing self-aware first person narrative is that the awareness is not necessarily the same awareness…

— Ottessa Moshfegh

When you pick up a book, everyone knows it's imaginary. You don't have to pretend it's not a book. We don't have to pretend…

— Paul Auster

“As I have pointed out before, characters are not born like people, of woman; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor…

— Milan Kundera

As a writer, it's a great narrative tool to have that character who is slightly detached but at the same time observant of his…

— Dinaw Mengestu

It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person.…

— Irvine Welsh

I can't reasonably pretend to be a transparent and omniscient narrator who brings no personal perspective. That person doesn't exist.

— Molly Crabapple

They may recognize themselves in what you're writing, and then they have to say, "Well, she doesn't see me as I see myself." All…

— Vivian Gornick

Writing allows for fictitious voices - the voices of persons unlike myself - that might otherwise be muted.

— Joyce Carol Oates

When I'm writing, especially when I'm writing in first person, I don't think about the characterization, or how they are going to express themselves,…

— Richard Matheson

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

— Jami Attenberg