Tom Perrotta quotes

When things don't go well, it helps to think of yourself as a genius and the rest of the world as a bunch of idiots. (Tom Perrotta)
Maybe that's what we look for in the people we love, the spark of unhappiness we think we know how to extinguish. View quote
Tom Perrotta
It's not the cheating. It's the hunger for an alternative. The refusal to accept unhappiness. View quote
Tom Perrotta
There's not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it. (67) View quote
Tom Perrotta
I read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school and was hypnotized by the beauty of the sentences and moved by the story about the irrevocability of lost love. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I find that even small changes sometimes jog you out of a mental rut. View quote
Tom Perrotta
From a distance, it makes perfect sense that the people and the things you think will save you are the very ones that have the power to disappoint you most bitterly, but up close it can hit you as a bewildering surprise. View quote
Tom Perrotta
Once you'd broken through that invisible barrier that separates one person from another, you were connected forever, whether you liked it or not. View quote
Tom Perrotta
It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence. View quote
Tom Perrotta
Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us. View quote
Tom Perrotta
Because, really, what was worse than lying wide-awake in the dark, watching your life drip away, one irreplaceable minute after another? (Tom Perrotta)
He made me think of all the books I hadn't read, and all the ones I'd read but hadn't fully understood. View quote
Tom Perrotta
As for writing about temptation, there's no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I think I'm fascinated by the power of religion in our culture. Like a lot of secular, liberal people, I ignored it for a long time. Lately, of course, just from a political perspective, it's impossible to ignore. View quote
Tom Perrotta
That's why we get involved with other people, right? Not just for their bodies, but for everything else, too – their dreams and their scars and their stories. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I'm used to adapting my novels for feature film - it can be challenging to cut and compress three or four hundred pages into two hours of dramatic action. View quote
Tom Perrotta
My novels are certainly more exciting than my own life. View quote
Tom Perrotta
My wife and I left New York when she got pregnant - we just thought it would be really hard to stay in the city. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I really wanted to be a musician, but it turned out I had no sense of time. (Tom Perrotta)
I no longer believe that just about everything is funny, if viewed from the proper angle. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I write about kids growing up, I write a lot about schools and parents, and all of my experiences with those things have been suburban experiences. View quote
Tom Perrotta
Nothing beats novel writing because it's complete expression of you. You just control everything. Not even a movie director has that level of control. View quote
Tom Perrotta
I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel. View quote
Tom Perrotta