Quotes from Jean Hanff Korelitz

In her new, albeit fragile, mood, this letter does not unduly distress her. One lesson she has learned is that any opinion expressed by a person who does not understand how to use an apostrophe may be disregarded with impunity.

Malaga Alves." Obviously. Everything that rises must converge.

She was pregnant. She was pregnant. That complete fuck.

The house, despite its eerie absence of absent things, was not a comfortable place, and there was nothing compelling her to be here.

it's never a forgone conclusion that anyone is actually going to see your work, no matter how good it is. And if nobody reads it, it doesn't exist.

This is how you know you're on Long Island, somebody offers you coffee and Entenmann's.

All ghost stories come to this, she understood. All ghost stories end in one of these two ways: You are dead or I am dead. If people only understood this, Portia thought, they would never be frightened, they would only need to ask themselves, Who among us has died? And then it occurred to her that she was the ghost in her story. She had spent years haunting her own life, without ever noticing.

respected your mother, and she honors that.

Do you think the coroner would talk to me?" "Don't see why not. We've come a long way since Deliverance. We're pretty nice to outsiders now.

But we can't really do anything about what they say when we leave the room. We'll never be able to control that. And we shouldn't try. Our job is just to…well, be in the room while we're there, and try not to think too much about where we're not. Whatever room we happen to be in, just, be there," she finished lamely.

And I suppose this is you speaking truth to power. The principle your whole life is organized around." Naomi started. There was loathing in the way it was said. She had never suspected. She shook her head sadly. "No, I don't think I can do that anymore. As you pointed out to me, I'm the power. This is me speaking power to truth.

Grace had read that the Spenser children followed a strictly macrobiotic diet—or that ultimate manifestation of New York real estate porn, the large laundry room photographed in Architectural Digest, with three uniformed laundresses ironing the zillion-thread-count sheets.

Either it's a good plot or it isn't. And if it's not a good plot, the best writing isn't going to help. And if it is, the worst writing isn't going to hurt it.

I don't think I was young even when I actually was young, and that wasn't yesterday.

eyes shut, dread coursing through him like a reverse meditation designed to eradicate serenity

Nobody else gets to live your life.

He would spend a lot of time in Aaron's office, though never for the typical reasons a restless boy might be compelled to see the principal: cheating, pot brownies, AOL unkindness.

I just care about the story. Either it's a good plot or it isn't. And if it's not a good plot, the best writing isn't going to help. And if it is, the worst writing isn't going to hurt it.

Serious writers pretend they don't care about film adaptations of their work, but it's a colossal lie: We all care.

Like many people, I have a fascination with lies and the people who tell them. I wouldn't say I've never told a lie, but I don't think I've ever told one without both assuming I would be found out and feeling absolutely rotten about it.

The Thames could be thought of as England's longest archaeological site, and no fewer than 90,000 objects recovered from its foreshore are in the collection of the Museum of London, whose 30-year relationship with London mudlarks is both committed and highly regulated.

Personally, I would love to see every gun on the planet disappear.

The implication of AKC registration is that a dog who has it is better than a dog who hasn't.

As a writer, I have this compulsion to take characters who appear formidable and bombard them with adversity until they crumble. What's interesting is watching them rise again, and seeing how they've changed and grown, if indeed they have.