Quote

I have spent so long erecting partitions around the part of me that writes - learning how to close the door on it when ordinary lfe intervenes, how to close the door on ordinary life when it's time to start writing again - that I'm not sure I could fit the two parts of me back together now.

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
Around
Door
Partitions
Part
Ordinary
Erecting
Together
Close
Intervenes
Back
Doors
Partition
Writing
Learning
Writes
Long
Sure
Fit
Time
Start
Parts
Life
Two
Spent

More quotes by Anne Tyler

Image
When you have children, you're obligated to live.
Anne Tyler
Image
But if you never did anything you couldn't undo you'd end up doing nothing at all.
Anne Tyler
Image
I write because I want more than one life I insist on a wider selection. It's greed, plain and simple.
Anne Tyler
Image
I don't type [when I write] because . . . I often have the feeling that everything flows directly from my right hand.
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've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless?
Anne Tyler
Image
Bravest thing about people is how they go on loving mortal beings after finding out there's such a thing as dying.
Anne Tyler
Image
Just because we're related doesn't mean we are any good at understanding each other.
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
Isn't a memorial service meant to comfort the living?
Anne Tyler
Image
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
Anne Tyler
Image
My stories are never quite good enough
Anne Tyler
Image
I write because I want to have more than one life.
Anne Tyler
Image
Not until the final draft do I force myself to remember that I'm going to have to think about how it will affect other people.
Anne Tyler
Image
It’s like the grief has been covered over with some kind of blanket. It’s still there, but the sharpest edges are .. muffled, sort of. Then, ever now and then, I lift the corner of the blanket just to check, and .. whoa! Like a knife! I’m not sure that will ever change.
Anne Tyler
Image
One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about. (from 'Celestial Navigation')
Anne Tyler
Image
Smells could bring a person back clearer than pictures even could.
Anne Tyler
Image
You think we're a family,' Cody said, turning back. 'You think we're some jolly, situation-comedy family when we're in particles, torn apart, torn all over the place, and our mother was a witch.
Anne Tyler
Image
I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.
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