Quote

This is one of the ways fiction is more liberating than nonfiction - I don't have to be so concerned with fact. I had the paradigm of certain people in my head who became my characters, but I never considered these people to be from a certain sector of society, unless we agree that we're all from certain sectors of society.

Said Sayrafiezadeh

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Said Sayrafiezadeh
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: January 1
Playwright
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Certain
Concerned
Nonfiction
Character
Unless
Paradigm
Way
Fiction
Sector
Never
Ways
Liberating
People
Head
Considered
Society
Agree
Fact
Became
Facts
Characters
Sectors

More quotes by Said Sayrafiezadeh

Image
Of course, I had a paradigm of a certain city in my head when I wrote these stories, a city that inspired my imagination, but it was only inspiration.
Said Sayrafiezadeh
Image
I liked the push and pull of that, between the outer political world and the inner personal lives of the characters. It's also real life... Many of us are keenly aware of world events, but break your nose and I bet that's the main thing you'd be focused on.
Said Sayrafiezadeh
Image
[Ending] is partly drawn from a desire to shock the audience, to brutally de-romanticize what many Americans think is happening overseas. And partly drawn from my own childhood: violence and a loss of innocence. But keep in mind that, as a writer, I'm both the criminal and the victim. I'm not trying to get out of anything easy.
Said Sayrafiezadeh
Image
When the ending finally comes to me, I often have to backtrack and make the beginning point towards that ending. Other times, I know exactly what the ending will be before I begin, like with the story A Brief Encounter With the Enemy. It was all about the ending - that's what motivated me.
Said Sayrafiezadeh
Image
The benefit of writing a collection - as opposed to a novel - is that I'm able to have some version of the war in each story without having to comment on its all-encompassing nature. Turn the page and here are new characters and new situations, but the war remains... Isn't that how life has been for us for over a decade?
Said Sayrafiezadeh