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I write because something inner and unconscious forces me to. That is the first compulsion. The second is one of ethical and moral duty. I feel responsible to tell stories that inspire readers to consider more deeply who they are.

David Guterson

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David Guterson
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: May 4
Journalist
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Seattle
Washington
Stories
Responsible
Ethical
Firsts
Reader
Readers
First
Duty
Unconscious
Feel
Second
Forces
Feels
Moral
Deeply
Writing
Force
Inner
Something
Write
Inspire
Tell
Consider
Compulsion

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accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.
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I have relaxed into my persona as an author, although I used to fight that.
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I think you have an obligation to share what you know as a writer.
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Cities produce in me melancholy or a tension I don't need.
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To deny that there was this dark side of life would be like pretending that the cold of winter was somehow only a temporary illusion, a way station on the way to the higher reality of long, warm, pleasant summers. But summer, it turned out, was no more real than the snow that melted in wintertime.
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That the world was silent and cold and bare and that in this lay its terrible beauty
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My book is traditional. It runs counter to the post-modern spirit.
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I'm not an urban person.
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Time made me change. I gradually woke up to the realization that this is who I am, an author, a public figure, and I couldn't just hide in my study, tapping away at the keyboard and pretend that I didn't have a role to play beyond stringing words together.
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At one level you're condemned to the voice you have. But within those confines, you have a certain amount of freedom to range among your possible voices.
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He didn't like very many people any more, or very many things either. He preferred not to be this way, but there it was, he was like that. His cynicism, a veteran's cynicism, was a thing that disturbed him all the time.
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I grew up in Seattle, but I always knew I wanted to leave.
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None of those other things makes a difference. Love is the strongest thing in the world, you know. Nothing can touch it. Nothing comes close. If we love each other we're safe from it all. Love is the biggest thing there is.
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Fiction is socially meaningful.
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What some people interpret as brooding melancholy is serenity. I don't feel required to grasp all the time.
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