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Time, in general, has always been a central obsession of mine - what it does to people, how it can constitute a plot all on its own. So naturally, I am interested in old age.

Anne Tyler

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Anne Tyler
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: October 25
Librarian
Novelist
Short Story Writer
Writer
Minneapolis
Minnesota
General
Interested
Constitute
Literature
Obsession
Age
Plot
Doe
Central
Always
Naturally
Time
Mines
People
Mine

More quotes by Anne Tyler

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I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say I'll have used up all my characters, and then I'll be free to get on with my real life.
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It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.
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Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!
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There is no sound more peaceful than rain on the roof, if you're safe asleep in someone else's house.
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People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.
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I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.
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I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.
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But I don't think people take bad advice. They've got intuition too, you know. In fact I'd be surprised if they take any advice at all.
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...he thought of dying as a kind of adventure, something new that he hadn't yet experienced. Like an unusual vacation trip.
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For my own family, I would always choose the makeshift, surrogate family formed by various characters unrelated by blood.
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It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.
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In real life I avoid all parties altogether, but on paper I can mingle with the best of them
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How plotless real life was!
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The very thing that attracts you to someone can end up putting you off.
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I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin
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It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.
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It seems to me that good novels celebrate the mystery in ordinary life, and summing it all up in psychological terms strips the mystery away
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I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns
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She was good at talking with young people. She seemed to view them as interesting foreigners.
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Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
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