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My first job is to write a book that I believe is compelling and deserves the long sustained attention that any novel requires, and to worry about the commerce only late in the game.
Joshua Ferris
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Joshua Ferris
Age: 49
Born: 1974
Born: November 8
Author
Novelist
Short Story Writer
Writer
Danville
Illinois
Believe
Attention
Compelling
Jobs
Requires
Write
Deserve
Firsts
Late
Book
Novel
First
Game
Sustained
Writing
Worry
Deserves
Long
Games
Commerce
More quotes by Joshua Ferris
Things could be worse and things could be so much better.
Joshua Ferris
I come from a very illustrious line of divorces. We love to get divorced in my family. My mother and father have been married four times each - eight ceremonies with the best of intentions.
Joshua Ferris
If someone were plucked from the group and given those responsibilities, they might find themselves growing more aloof, just by virtue of that promotion. Suddenly the group culture excludes you. I saw this in my own working life, and I don't think it's a coincidence - I sensed a kind of loneliness in middle managers especially.
Joshua Ferris
I wake up every day in order to do something that's quixotic, and not necessarily called for in the world, but I do it because there's extraordinary meaning for me behind the effort.
Joshua Ferris
I think it's a very bad idea for someone to start writing for a readership.
Joshua Ferris
One thing that I discovered about myself is I really don't like traveling. I feel like it's a terrible personal failing, but I was so satisfied to arrive at the conclusion.
Joshua Ferris
I have never stopped considering not becoming a writer.
Joshua Ferris
Everyone desires relationships and community. Most people want to belong to a cohesive, like-minded group. It staves off loneliness. It promotes identity. These are natural and very human instincts.
Joshua Ferris
I've always thought things were absurd. It would take a lot more effort for me to see things as reasonable.
Joshua Ferris
It is really irritating to work with irritating people
Joshua Ferris
To conform is to lose your soul
Joshua Ferris
The office is a romantic enabler because you're always around the person you have a crush on. There's no escape from, and maybe no desire to escape from, those pressure-cooker conditions. And there's an automatic series of things you have to talk about all the time.
Joshua Ferris
A dentist is only half the doctor he claims to be.
Joshua Ferris
It is forgivable to say nothing out of ignorance it's inexcusable to remain silent once awareness dawns.
Joshua Ferris
I believe people think as a group more often than we might realize or care to admit. We like to believe that we act as individuals and nothing more, but time and again - in corporations and business, in politics and religion, in fashion and culture, and in friendships and social circles - we think and do as one.
Joshua Ferris
Being serious is serious business in fiction. It's commercial or hoi polloi in fiction to be funny. It's too accessible to the great unwashed.
Joshua Ferris
Sometimes you have to make decisions that necessarily exclude the collective. It's more difficult to be a friend - even though they know each other and they treat each other like friends, it's more of a challenge for them. It's just institutional fact the two characters that are the most aloof are the ones who have the most responsibility.
Joshua Ferris
We had the great good fortune and shortcomings of character that marked every generation that had never seen war.
Joshua Ferris
We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen.
Joshua Ferris
Humor is a very big part of life, and if you exclude humor from your book, you're not capturing a very important part of human experience.
Joshua Ferris