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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.

Alice Mattison

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Alice Mattison
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 18
Novelist
New York City
New York
Might
Develop
Need
Courage
Different
Seem
Needs
Quite
Viewpoint
Writing
Race
Ethnicity
Think
Write
Viewpoints
Thinking
Seems
Orientation
People
May
Sexual

More quotes by Alice Mattison

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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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I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it.
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I just like doing it, I like writing.
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In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.
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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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Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older.
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There are so many different ways, most of them helpful and legal, to get yourself into a state of mind where writing is possible. It's going to be different for each person.
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Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.
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I think the difference between writing as someone and writing for them is that when you write for someone, you take on a kind of political burden or message, which I don't think we have the right to do.
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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 think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.
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Telling someone to be confident in the abstract is not going to make it easier for the unconfident writer to actually get herself or himself to the point of being able to put in the upsetting stuff.
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The main thing is to explain to yourself that everybody suffers.
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When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice.
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Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.
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We're always inventing, even if we're making someone who's fairly close to ourselves.
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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.
Alice Mattison
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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.
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Writers sometimes are paid a great deal of money, but much more frequently they're not paid or are paid only a little bit.
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We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story.
Alice Mattison