Anne Enright quotes - page 2

I never wanted to be mainstream as a writer, but look at what's happened. (Anne Enright)
If you grow up in Ireland and read books then you really are obliged to attempt your own some time. It is not exactly a choice. I still don't know if I am a writer. Believe me, there are days when I have my doubts. View quote
Anne Enright
I'm very keenly aware that there aren't very many women writing literary fiction in Ireland and so that gives me a sense that what I say matters, in some small way. View quote
Anne Enright
It was lucky I was hanging around with theatre types who don't really have steady jobs. View quote
Anne Enright
Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die. View quote
Anne Enright
There are so few people given us to love. I want to tell my daughters this, that each time you fall in love it is important, even at nineteen. Especially at nineteen. And if you can, at nineteen, count the people you love on one hand, you will not, at forty, have run out of fingers on the other. There are so few people given us to love and they all stick. View quote
Anne Enright
Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand. View quote
Anne Enright
Cats, I always think, only jump into your lap to check if you are cold enough, yet, to eat. View quote
Anne Enright
When you find yourself alone, or in a transition, you dream more. These are also the times when you read books. View quote
Anne Enright
I think you know everything at eight. But is is hidden from you, sealed up, in a way you have to cut yourself open to find. View quote
Anne Enright
If you try to control it too much, the book is dead. You have to let it fall apart quite early on and let it start doing its own thing. And that takes nerve, not to panic that the book you were going to write is not the book you will have at the end of the day. (Anne Enright)
The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page. View quote
Anne Enright
There are about as many ways to be dead as there are to be alive. People linger in different ways, both publicly and privately. View quote
Anne Enright
A novel is written not to be judged, but experienced. View quote
Anne Enright
Remember, if you sit at your desk for 15 or 20 years, every day, not counting weekends, it changes you. It just does. It may not improve your temper, but it fixes something else. It makes you more free. View quote
Anne Enright
There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line. View quote
Anne Enright
Only bad writers think that their work is really good. View quote
Anne Enright
I do not think we remember our family in any real sense. We live in them instead. View quote
Anne Enright
God, I hate my family, these people I never chose to love, but love all the same. View quote
Anne Enright
People whose lives are upside down often read fiction. When you're not sure where you'll end up or how you are going to be, and you're looking for some way forward, fiction is a great friend. View quote
Anne Enright
Writing is not my problem, it is my solution. (Anne Enright)
To be able to have the space to sit down and write has always been my central policy. View quote
Anne Enright
I think young children in the Western middle classes are objects of incredible anxiety. View quote
Anne Enright
Having kids is very difficult to do on your own, and it's really crazy difficult to think you're doing it as a team and to find out that you're not actually part of a team. View quote
Anne Enright
Resistless change, when powerless to improve, Can only mar. View quote
Anne Enright