Quote

Just because we're related doesn't mean we are any good at understanding each other.

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
Understanding
Doesn
Mean
Good
Related

More quotes by 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
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
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
People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.
Anne Tyler
Image
Once your mind is caught on the right snag, there's nothing so hard about the mechanics of writing.
Anne Tyler
Image
I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.
Anne Tyler
Image
People always talked about a mother's uncanny ability to read her children, but that was nothing compared to how children could read their mothers.
Anne Tyler
Image
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.
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
I think I was born with the impression that what happened in books was much more reasonable, and interesting, and real, in some ways, than what happened in life.
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
But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.
Anne Tyler
Image
There's surprisingly little difference between writing from a male angle and from a female angle, but I feel more restricted in my language when I'm writing as a male character because males tend to sound less emotionally expressive than females.
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
When you have children, you're obligated to live.
Anne Tyler
Image
For me, writing something down was the only road out...I hated childhood, and spent it sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood to arrive. When I ran out of books I made up my own. At night, when I couldn't sleep, I made up stories in the dark.
Anne Tyler
Image
While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.
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
When I read, I'm purely a reader
Anne Tyler