Quotes from Philip Gerard

Nobody writes a book. What you write every day is a piece of a book, a fragment, a scene.

The fastest way to write is to pretend you have all the time in the world.

You hear all this talk about Southern hospitality. And they'll break their necks for you, all right, if you're family. Or if you've lived here for a hundred years. But if you're a stranger …

It's always seemed odd to me that nonfiction is defined, not by what it is, but by what it is not. It is not fiction. But then again, it is also not poetry, or technical writing or libretto. It's like defining classical music as nonjazz.

I love the hush of those deserted places, those old battlefields, always so breathtaking, as if we, as a species, have decided to fight only in beautiful places.

She clearly had the gift. Partly, the gift was just plain, old-fashioned love. Partly, it was a questioning intelligence. Real teachers had a kind of longing, a searching excitement of soul. They wanted to find out things. They didn't settle for the old, easy answers. They lived in their minds more than in the world.

It's not enough simply to record the way people actually talk. The dialogue must be concentrated, shaped, dramatically moving, in a way that real-life conversation seldom is.

The only way to write a novel is to proceed as if you had all the time in the world.

Storytelling is the art of unfolding knowledge in a way that makes each piece contribute to a larger truth.

For the big stuff to work credibly, you've got to get the little stuff absolutely right.