Quote

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

Anne Tyler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anne Tyler
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: October 25
Librarian
Novelist
Short Story Writer
Writer
Minneapolis
Minnesota
Character
Characters
Reams
Writing
Begin
Delving
Long
Events
Paragraph
Ready
Describing
Maybe
Chapters
Literature
Breaking
Write
Page
Two
Pages

More quotes by Anne Tyler

Image
I spend about a year between novels
Anne Tyler
Image
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!
Anne Tyler
Image
I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when you're with them.
Anne Tyler
Image
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.
Anne Tyler
Image
I write because I want to have more than one life.
Anne Tyler
Image
My decision to start a new one is just that, a decision, since I never get inspirations.
Anne Tyler
Image
Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
Anne Tyler
Image
I hated childhood, and spent it sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood to arrive.
Anne Tyler
Image
Farmers are patient men. They got to be. Got to see those seeds come up week by week, fraction by fraction, and sweat it out for some days not knowing yet is it weeds or vegetables.
Anne Tyler
Image
It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.
Anne Tyler
Image
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.
Anne Tyler
Image
People imagine that missing a loved one works kind of like missing cigarettes,' he said. 'The first day is really hard but the next day is less hard and so forth, easier and easier the longer you go on. But instead it's like missing water. Every day, you notice the person's absence more.
Anne Tyler
Image
Try Jesus, you won't regret it, a billboard read.
Anne Tyler
Image
There is no true life. Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be. You just do the best you can with what you've got.
Anne Tyler
Image
We stay in the house so much because I am waiting for the telephone. I seem to be back in my teens, a period I thought I would never have to endure again: my life is spent hoping for things that only someone else can bring about.
Anne Tyler
Image
And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.
Anne Tyler
Image
... everyone must play his role.
Anne Tyler
Image
I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?
Anne Tyler
Image
Some people are aware of everything that is going on everywhere at every moment in their lives.
Anne Tyler
Image
I forget a book as soon as I finish writing it, which is not always a good thing
Anne Tyler