Ann Patchett quotes - page 5

I should figure out why I'm so much more interested in doing something that I think is really hard. But, somehow, the thing that is hard for me feels more noble. (Ann Patchett)
I am the person who is appropriating stories that are not mine and turning them into a book. View quote
Ann Patchett
I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like somebody. View quote
Ann Patchett
I read books I hate all the time, and I don't mention them or talk about them. View quote
Ann Patchett
I was always on time, I did my work to exact specifications, I spoke when spoken to. View quote
Ann Patchett
You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend. View quote
Ann Patchett
The hardest piece of nonfiction I ever wrote isn't anywhere close to the easiest piece of fiction I never wrote. View quote
Ann Patchett
I certainly have written a lot about police in my life, and it's not only something that I know about, but always something that interests me. View quote
Ann Patchett
That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down. View quote
Ann Patchett
Everybody believes in chance. View quote
Ann Patchett
We have different kinds of intimacy with many, many people. I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people. (Ann Patchett)
I love a large cast of characters. That's the way life is: it's flooded with people and we keep them all straight. View quote
Ann Patchett
I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book. View quote
Ann Patchett
Some people need a huge amount of attention, and they are worthy of that attention, and they're still exhausting. View quote
Ann Patchett
I know where I'm going. And if I don't know where I'm going, I don't tend to get anywhere. View quote
Ann Patchett
I decided to make my living as a magazine writer. And I found that it was really easy and fun. View quote
Ann Patchett
Fiction is always really a labor. View quote
Ann Patchett
I love telling people what to read. It's my favorite thing in the world, to buy books and force books on people, take bad books away from people, give them better books. View quote
Ann Patchett
I saw that my best work was my most personal work, which is odd, because my fiction is very far afield and has nothing to do with my life. View quote
Ann Patchett
I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had. View quote
Ann Patchett
You can't spend your whole life in front of a screen. (Ann Patchett)
That's important to me, to recommend books. View quote
Ann Patchett
You are the same person in every aspect of your life, and you have to be a responsible person in every aspect of your life. View quote
Ann Patchett
If what we want to do is promote reading and writing and publishing and making sure this is a business that keeps going - because it is a business! It's not just an art - then we have to take responsibility. I get sort of crazy and frothy when I think about this. It really matters. View quote
Ann Patchett
If anybody had shown me the paperwork for how my life was going to look in five years, I would have said, "No. That is not where I want to go." View quote
Ann Patchett