Quote

I think I write what's interesting to me, and so if I'm reading I like to have a very thorough idea of a character in a book that's by someone else.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Curtis Sittenfeld
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: August 23
Author
Novelist
Teacher
Writer
Cincinnati
Ohio
Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld
Elizabeth Sittenfeld
Like
Else
Someone
Character
Ideas
Thorough
Book
Reading
Writing
Interesting
Think
Idea
Thinking
Write

More quotes by Curtis Sittenfeld

Image
I just like to inhabit a character really deeply.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
To remain alone did not seem to me a terrible fate, no worse than being falsely joined to another person.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I feel like people who criticize authors for being self-promotional fail to recognize that a lot of times their ability to continue writing hinges on sales and recognition. Some of it is for fun, some of it is for ego, but a lot of it is just writers trying to ensure longevity to their career.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
She nodded, jotting something in her notebook. You’re writing that down? Has the interview started?” Lee, whenever you’re talking to a reporter, you’re being interviewed.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
Anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
She really does like him, she likes lying next to him, she wants to be around him when you get down to it, can you say that about many people?
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I wanted to hold happiness in reserve, like a bottle of champagne. I postponed it because I was afraid, because I overvalued it, and then I didn't want to use it up, because what do you wish for then?
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I don't know what it is about human beings but most of us really like reading about or observing sexual tension and romance. It's just so much fun. I don't know if there is some Darwinian thing in us that really responds to that, but I think the most memorable scenes to me in books and movies are the ones where a couple is about to kiss.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
And I am pretty sure that's the point of reading fiction -- so someone else can say in a way you never would have something you recognize immediately.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
Before and after... I heard a thousand times that a boy, or a man, can't make you happy, that you have to be happy on your own before you can be happy with another person. All I can say is, I wish it were true.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
Of course, I didn't imagine then that I could have had a real relationship with any guy. I thought that by virtue of being me I was disqualified.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I guess because twins have this mystique, and triplets - I think the normal sibling connection potentially can be very powerful, and there's this idea that it's even more powerful. It really is, not just someone like me, but another version of me.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
You know, the point of a novel - or to me, the point of a novel, the gift of a novel is to go really deeply inside people's lives and inside their personal experiences.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
There are people we treat wrong and later we're prepared to treat other people right. Perhaps this sounds mercenary, but I feel grateful for these trial relationships, and I would like to think it all evens out - surely, unknowingly, I have served as practice for other people.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Image
I do think I was trying to entertain the reader more than I was trying to purge myself.
Curtis Sittenfeld