Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Paul Beatty
Age: 63
Born: 1962
Born: January 1
Author
Novelist
Poet
LA
California
California
Grew
Much
Something
Think
Thinking
Status

More quotes by Paul Beatty

Image
It's all the same for me, how I teach, how I write, how I think.
Paul Beatty
Image
I had a student once come up to me and we were talking about this incident, and, of course, I never had the right thing to say. But later on, I realized I should have said: Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.
Paul Beatty
Image
There's this line between propriety and how we really speak and how we really think. And I'm just trying to have fun with that stuff.
Paul Beatty
Image
There are things I don't like, like sitting at the head of the class. It makes me uncomfortable. I'll do it in a seminar if I have to, but with a workshop, I try to put myself in the circle somewhere. Because that hopefully frees up some people by making somebody else sit at the nominal head of the table.
Paul Beatty
Image
The other thing [my psychology professor] said to me was that I was always very mindful of the person who was away from the group, that I was always trying to bring them in.
Paul Beatty
Image
If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.
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 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
Image
I just rode cross-country and the thing I noticed is just how afraid everyone is, and how nervous and scared and angry people are. From my point of view, I don't think it's all necessarily justified, but I think that's easy for me to say.
Paul Beatty
Image
I'm healthier in California, probably a little happier, maybe.
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
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've also never written anything really in LA.
Paul Beatty
Image
People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.
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
I'm not searching for the truth.That's too much pressure .
Paul Beatty
Image
I try to be accommodating, but I'm pretty much a loner.
Paul Beatty
Image
There are certain things that happen in New York that just don't happen anywhere else.
Paul Beatty
Image
I'm very fortunate. I'm not much of a self-promoter or anything.
Paul Beatty
Image
Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.
Paul Beatty