Quotes from Jonathan Evison

So often when we historicize material, we use this big wide-angle lens.

You have to find hope. Hope is such a shape shifter. You tend to look in the rearview mirror for hope, but when its gone, you have to look forward. You have to get in the van and keep driving on.

You have to smile, if you expect anybody to smile back.

In writing, I've found, playing it safe and familiar is no way to energize anybody.

I just need to believe that we're not in some form of stasis, that we can try to be whoever we want to be. We probably won't get there, but we might get a little bit closer, you know?

I write as a matter of need - seven books and God knows how many short stories before anyone published me.

I really believe in challenging myself, pushing myself to new places.

I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy.

Maybe a theme that touches all of my work is people reinventing themselves.

I grew up in the Bay Area until 1976, then I pretty much went all the way through primary and high school on Bainbridge, though like anybody who grows up on an island, I ran the first chance I got.

When I started caregiving, I was not on very firm ground. My first marriage had dissolved. I was working at an ice-cream stand in my thirties. I learned that when you don't have anything to give, that's when you really give, and then you get back so much more.

I'll never stop caring. But the thing about caring is, it's inconvenient. Sometimes you've got to give when it makes no sense to at all. Sometimes you've got to give until it hurts.

For me, an ideal novel is a dialogue between writer and reader, both a collaborative experience and an intimate exchange of emotions and ideas. The reader just might be the most powerful tool in a writer's arsenal.

I know I've lost my mind. But I'm not concerned, because it's the first thing I've lost in a long time that actually feels good.

Limited points of view let the writer dispense - and the reader gather - information from various corners of the story. It all becomes a kind of dance, with the writer guiding the reader through the various twists and turns. The challenge is keeping readers in step, while still managing to surprise.

There're so many great writers out there who aren't getting the exposure they deserve.

Most everything that happens to me in any significant sense finds its way into my fiction.

I love being a struggling artist; it makes me feel very alive.

I'm not in the business of meddling with people's destinies - and yes, my characters are real people to me. They have histories and thoughts and yearnings and hurts and misgivings and pleasures that don't belong to me.

I'm a DIY kinda guy.

I usually write in my underwear, with a space heater running full blast, and three dogs sleeping at me feet.

After 20 years of writing in basically a vacuum, I love being part of a community. I've vetted other writers' contracts for them and do publicity for free just because I like a book. Some people think of it as hubris or careerism, but I love to champion books. You can't use your whole sphere of influence just to help yourself.

I've been blessed with an optimistic disposition, I think.

There are holes in our lives that can never be filled - not really, not ever.