Jonathan Dee quotes

Those who know New York City primarily through tourism or mass culture may think of us natives as possessing certain shared characteristics, not all of them flattering. But the true, volatile charisma of New York lies in how balkanised it is. (Jonathan Dee)
I personally feel I still have so much to learn as a writer; each novel is better than the one before, just because I'm getting better at it.
Jonathan Dee
More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk but I can't stop.
Jonathan Dee
Novels are a kind of experiment in selfhood, for the reader as well as for the author.
Jonathan Dee
You never want to have to give your child bad news of any kind.
Jonathan Dee
The first draft of everything, I write longhand. One of the nice things about that is that it makes you keep going. If you write a bad sentence on the computer, then it's very tempting to go back and fidget with it and spend another 20 minutes trying to make it into a good sentence.
Jonathan Dee
I seem to have a talent for writing endings that seem just right to me but that frustrate other people.
Jonathan Dee
Kenneth Branagh. There was a time in my life when people would tell me constantly that I look like him. I could do a lot worse than that.
Jonathan Dee
New York is ultimately not the synthesis but merely the sum of its unfathomable subjectivities, its personal histories, its uncategorisable figures.
Jonathan Dee
There's no path to being a writer that's applicable to everyone. Some young writers have the fortitude to work in a vacuum. For me, it was important to have some sense that my failures weren't unique.
Jonathan Dee
That's always the most productive research - research into tone, into voice. Facts are nice, too, but facts are more raw material than creative inspiration. (Jonathan Dee)
In order to describe a particular subculture, you might want to portray people who are typical or representative of that subculture; but to dramatize it, to make it an interesting setting for a story, you want to bring someone anomalous into that setting, to see how she conforms to it, and it to her.
Jonathan Dee