Jess Walter Quotes

All we have is the story we tell.

And if a moment exists only in one’s perception anyway, then perhaps the rush of feeling he has now is THE MOMENT, and not merely its shadow.

What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he was dead?

I pretty much drink a cup of coffee, write in my journal for a while, and then sit at a computer in my office and torture the keys. My one saving grace as a writer is that, if I’m having trouble with the novel I’m writing, I write something else, a poem or a short story. I try to avoid writer’s block by always writing something.

Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.

A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea. That’s only three. Alvis finished his wine. You have to do disappointment twice.

I’m certainly eclectic in my writing.

You take something from your past that you’re somewhat ashamed about and you write about it from another character’s point of view.

I doubt the terrorists saw 9/11 as a teaching opportunity. And we’re not really a culture geared to anything as humble as ‘learning.’ But I was disappointed in how quickly everyone wanted to get back to normal. It was as if we watched terrorism on TV for a while, then got bored and turned back to ‘American Idol.’

I realized the structure in a collection is how they’re put together. Structuring the collection became the art of it for me. Because the stories had all been written.

No one gets to tell you what your life means!

He thought it might be the most intimate thing possible, to fall asleep next to someone in the afternoon.