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I like to be surprised. The best writing is when it defies me, when it starts going a different way than I had planned.

Wally Lamb

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Wally Lamb
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: October 17
Author
Novelist
Writer
Norwich
Connecticut
Starts
Best
Different
Writing
Going
Way
Defies
Like
Planned
Surprised

More quotes by Wally Lamb

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I love revising. If you demystify the process, it comes down to four strategies: what can I do to make the draft better what should I cut out to make it stronger what do I need to do to clarify it and finally, what should I reposition.
Wally Lamb
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The point is this: that the stream of memory may lead you to the river of understanding. And understanding, in turn, may be a tributary to the river of forgiveness.
Wally Lamb
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I try to stick with what moves me or teaches me about myself, same thing I hope the novels do for others.
Wally Lamb
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Love is like breathing, you take it in and let it out.
Wally Lamb
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However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.
Wally Lamb
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The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.
Wally Lamb
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Love comes in far more shapes and sizes than what the family-values crowd condones, of course.
Wally Lamb
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Human behavior in the midst of hardship caught my attention very early on, and my first stories were all pictures, no words.
Wally Lamb
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If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.
Wally Lamb
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If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.
Wally Lamb
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I grew up in a household of women, they ran the show, they kept it all together. I credit my ability to write in female voices, as well as male, with having grown up with older sisters in a neighborhood largely populated by girls.
Wally Lamb
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The roundness of life's design may be a sign that there is a presence beyond ourselves.
Wally Lamb
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I wanted to connect a modern story with a myth that I had read.
Wally Lamb
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The greatest griefs are silent.
Wally Lamb
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I walked over and looked closer at the statue of the goddess. She was wearing a headdress with a skull and a cobra and a crescent moon. Maybe this is what peace of mind was all about: having a poisonous snake on your head and smiling anyway.
Wally Lamb
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Eastern Connecticut is very different from Western we're more liverwurst than pâté, more bowling than polo.
Wally Lamb
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What if I don’t like adventure? Then cultivate a taste for it. Take a chance. That’s how you grow.
Wally Lamb
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My Italian-American heritage, of which I'm very proud and with which I identify strongly, surfaces in several of my novels.
Wally Lamb
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I thought about how love was always the thing that did that - smashed into you, left you raw. The deeper you loved, the deeper it hurt.
Wally Lamb
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I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.
Wally Lamb