Anne Tyler Quotes - Page 3

And she thought what a clean, simple life she would have led if it weren't for love.

My decision to start a new one is just that, a decision, since I never get inspirations.

I write because I want to have more than one life.

Women were the ones that held the reins, it emerged.

It struck her all at once that dealing with other human beings was an awful lot of work.

One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about. (from 'Celestial Navigation')

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest.

The very thing that attracts you to someone can end up putting you off.

(About parenting:) ... all that tedium, broken up by little spurts of high drama.

I wonder how many times we dream that kind of dream-something strange and illogical-and fail to realize God is trying to tell us something.

You think we're a family,' Cody said, turning back. 'You think we're some jolly, situation-comedy family when we're in particles, torn apart, torn all over the place, and our mother was a witch.

I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.

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.

While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.

It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

She saw herself riding in the passenger seat, Sam behind the wheel. Like two of those little peg people in a toy car. Husband peg, wife peg, side by side. Facing the road and not looking at each other; for why would they need to, really, having gone beyond the visible surface long ago. No hope of admiring gazes anymore, no chance of unremitting adoration. Nothing left to show but their plain, true, homely, interior selves, which were actually much richer anyhow.

Once your mind is caught on the right snag, there's nothing so hard about the mechanics of writing.

I've always thought sleep was a wonderful invention. Not that being awake isn't nice too, of course. But when I get up in the morning, I think, boy, only fourteen more hours and I can be back to sleep again ... And I never dream, because it distracts my mind from pure sleeping.

People imagine that missing a loved one works kind of like missing cigarettes,' he said. 'The first day is really hard but the next day is less hard and so forth, easier and easier the longer you go on. But instead it's like missing water. Every day, you notice the person's absence more.

Smells could bring a person back clearer than pictures even could.

It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.

Point of view is not something I consciously decide. Almost always, when I come up with a plot I find that the point of view has automatically arrived with it, part and parcel of the story.

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

I've always enjoyed studying the small clues that indicate a particular class level.

I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It’s greed, plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I’m joining the circus. Although I’m happily married, I spent a great deal of time mentally living with incompatible husbands.