Quote

Sometimes I highjack memories. Sometimes I switch them around. Sometimes they're just in the background, like some little bass note. Those things have carried me through, especially when I first started writing. They're still there, but more in the distance these days.

Paul Beatty

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Paul Beatty
Age: 62
Born: 1962
Born: January 1
Author
Novelist
Poet
LA
California
Sometimes
Days
Carried
Writing
Around
Background
Things
Stills
Backgrounds
Like
Still
Notes
Littles
Distance
Little
Especially
Switch
Firsts
Memories
Bass
First
Started
Note

More quotes by Paul Beatty

Image
I think, and a lot of that has to do with where I grew up in California [status] isn't something I think about that much.
Paul Beatty
Image
It's so hard to say what you really mean. For any number of reasons: to protect yourself, or if you just can't find the words.
Paul Beatty
Image
If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.
Paul Beatty
Image
I'm very fortunate. I'm not much of a self-promoter or anything.
Paul Beatty
Image
People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.
Paul Beatty
Image
The anger and fear are so global. And of course, we live where we live and there's a hierarchy to who is worth what. It's been going on for a long, long time.
Paul Beatty
Image
I've also never written anything really in LA.
Paul Beatty
Image
I'm hugely honored [with the Man Booker Prize].
Paul Beatty
Image
Why are the mainstream buzz things rarely contemporary? It doesn't happen very often. It's hard to feel culpable or implicated or even apathetic.
Paul Beatty
Image
I forget how beautiful and calm California is. It's not so much about the place, but also the age that I came to the place and, well, other things. New York is hard.
Paul Beatty
Image
Well, it's not all the same, but there are a lot of parallels. I'm not sure how to answer [on psychology background], but I think when I was studying psychology I had a professor and a friend who would talk about process all the time. Your process, his process, the group's process. There's some carryover from that discussion to my creative wor
Paul Beatty
Image
All this angst, all this stuff we all feel, is just tied to making art. It's so ancient.
Paul Beatty
Image
It's all the same for me, how I teach, how I write, how I think.
Paul Beatty
Image
I'm healthier in California, probably a little happier, maybe.
Paul Beatty
Image
There are many similarities between Germans and blacks. The nouns themselves are loaded with so much historical baggage it's impossible for anyone to be indifferent to the simple mention of either group. We're two insightful people looking for reasons to love ourselves and let's not forget we both love pork and wear sandals with socks.
Paul Beatty
Image
We don't act the same in every situation. Things bleed into all kinds of other things, from behavior to identity.
Paul Beatty
Image
I don't try to be satirical. I just try to get what's in my head on the page. And that part is hard for me to do. It takes a long, long time to make it poetic, somewhat essayistic.
Paul Beatty
Image
I remember going to see Amiri Baraka. It wasn't actually too long before he died. He said, You've got to write to change the world! I was like, Not me, no, no, no, no.
Paul Beatty
Image
My dad fought in Korea. It was one of the first stories I remember hearing about.
Paul Beatty
Image
I co-taught a seminar called Small Group Processes with my professor. I learned so much from it, so much about myself, about groups, how this stuff works. I bring all that stuff to teaching now.
Paul Beatty