Quotes About Anne Tyler

I don't want to say I hear voices; well, actually I do hear voices, but I don't think it's supernatural. I think it's just that when characters are given enough texture and backbone, then lo and behold, they stand on their own.

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

But what I hope for in a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

Kate wondered why they were both contemplating careers they were so unsuited for.

mothers are the ones they hold their arms out to afterward for comfort. Isn't that pathetic?" "Elaine. Just move on," Willa said.

I mean, if you catalogue grudges, anything looks bad. And Cody certainly catalogues; he's ruining his life with his catalogues.

Oh," he said. That seemed to satisfy him. At least, he didn't ask anything more. In the silence that followed, Willa's eyes met her sister's, and the two of them exchanged a long, stunned, stricken gaze.

How come you pack your clothes in Kleenex?" she asked. Tissue paper, she meant. Willa said, "Oh, that's just something women do when they have too much time on their hands." Cheryl said "Huh?" and Willa laughed.

he wrote a series of guidebooks for people forced to travel on business. Ridiculous, when you thought about it: Macon hated travel.

But Nora had said, "Oh, no. I don't believe in dative evangelizing." Abby had repeated this later to the girls: "She doesn't believe in 'dative evangelizing.

What I do like listening to as I write is the sound of ordinary life out in the street—children playing and workmen talking.

I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.