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I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.

Alice Mattison

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Alice Mattison
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 18
Novelist
New York City
New York
Characters
Trouble
Character
Kind
Think
Inevitably
Thinking
Metaphor
Happenings
Happening

More quotes by Alice Mattison

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Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.
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I think we need to develop the courage to write from the viewpoint of people who may seem quite different from ourselves, who might have a different sexual orientation or a different race or a different ethnicity.
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Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.
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Censorship is all around us, I don't think it's innate.
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Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs.
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We're always inventing, even if we're making someone who's fairly close to ourselves.
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We have to diversify, we have to find work we can do that helps other people while helping ourselves, work that has to do with writing that isn't necessarily just writing saleable novels or getting huge advances.
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I actually think it's sometimes easier for the control freaks to let loose.
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Somehow we have to detach from feeling as though money is a quick and easy standard by which we can gauge how well we're doing.
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I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.
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The making of fiction takes literally what is suggested by our imagination.
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Sometimes people want to know how to write a story from the point of view of a murderer and make her sympathetic. I think the answer is that you start by having her look for her car keys, because everybody knows what it's like.
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I think you have to remember that writing is hard my first editor used to say that to me.
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If you have a character stand up and put on her shoes and open the door, in order to do that, you're imagining her shoes and her clothes and her house and her door. The character becomes more real. But once you've done that, you can probably just get it all across with a couple of details.
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We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.
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I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle they need to jump over.
Alice Mattison
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Maybe we're stuck with who we are.
Alice Mattison
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There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.
Alice Mattison
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I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.
Alice Mattison
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You may be somebody who writes best for a small press that doesn't pay very well, but you might have a fascinating and intricate style that might not appeal to as many readers but will be incredibly meaningful to the readers you have. Truly, that's as wonderful if not more wonderful.
Alice Mattison