Jess Walter quotes

Life, he thought, is a blatant act of imagination. (Jess Walter)
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. View quote
Jess Walter
His life was two lives now: the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about. View quote
Jess Walter
He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment. View quote
Jess Walter
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. View quote
Jess Walter
I wake at 5 or 5:30 most mornings, make myself a latte and grab a cookie, write until 10 or 11, go have my favorite meal, 'second breakfast,' or grab coffee with friends, or play basketball. Then, around noon, I begin apologizing via email for the manuscripts I can't get to. View quote
Jess Walter
What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he was dead? View quote
Jess Walter
He thought it might be the most intimate thing possible, to fall asleep next to someone in the afternoon. View quote
Jess Walter
No one gets to tell you what your life means! View quote
Jess Walter
And even if they don't find what they're looking for, isn't it enough to be out walking together in the sunlight? View quote
Jess Walter
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. (Jess Walter)
He wished he could reassure his mother: a man wants many things in life, but when one of them is also the right thing, he would be a fool not to choose it. View quote
Jess Walter
What business does memory have with time? View quote
Jess Walter
Stories are people. I'm a story, you're a story ... your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we're lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we're less alone. View quote
Jess Walter
The first seven years that I wrote fiction, I sent out stories and a novel and made a total of $25. View quote
Jess Walter
All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character-what we believe-none of it is real; it's all part of the story we tell. But here's the thing: it's our goddamned story! View quote
Jess Walter
Then she smiled, and in that instant, if such a thing were possible, Pasquale fell in love, and he would remain in love for the rest of his life--not so much with the woman, whom he didn't even know, but with the moment. View quote
Jess Walter
All we have is the story we tell. View quote
Jess Walter
I come from a newspaper background, so maybe Im attuned to current events. View quote
Jess Walter
There was a time when self-promotion was considered so verboten, especially for authors. View quote
Jess Walter
There are some people whose Twitter feeds are works of art. They intuitively understand how much of themselves to put out there. (Jess Walter)
This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life. View quote
Jess Walter
But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start. View quote
Jess Walter
Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief. View quote
Jess Walter
I think most Hollywood meetings are silly and I truly despise pitching. It's insane to expect someone to come in and tell you the story before they've written it, and buying an idea from someone who can explain it rather than write it is like choosing a mechanic based on his ability to draw a picture of your car's problem. View quote
Jess Walter