Quotes by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler

American novelist and short story writer

Alive from: 1941-

Category: Writers (Contemporary)

Quotes 1 till 15 of 39.

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  I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless?

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  And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  At most I'll spend three or four hours daily, sometimes less.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!

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  For me, writing something down was the only road out.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  For my own family, I would always choose the makeshift, surrogate family formed by various characters unrelated by blood.

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  I can never tell ahead of time which book will give me trouble - some balk every step of the way, others seem to write themselves - but certainly the mechanics of writing, finding the time and the psychic space, are easier now that my children are grown.

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  I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

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  I don't want to say I hear voices; well, actually I do hear voices, but I don't think it's supernatural. I think it's just that when characters are given enough texture and backbone, then lo and behold, they stand on their own.

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  I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say; I'll have used up all my characters, and then I'll be free to get on with my real life.

• Anne Tyler

  

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  I forget a book as soon as I finish writing it, which is not always a good thing.

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  I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns.