Top 12 Quotes by Stewart ONan

All stories teach us something, and promise us something, whether they're true or invented, legend or fact.

All stories teach us something, and promise us something, whether they're true or invented, legend or fact.

Promise, Stories, Legends

Stewart O'Nan (2008). “The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy”, p.363, Anchor

You couldn't relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You had to accept it as a whole--like the world, or the person you loved.

Stewart O'Nan

Love, Life, Acceptance

Getting inside your character's head and letting the reader see the world through not just their eyes but their sensibility creates an intimacy that can't be duplicated in any other medium.

Stewart O'Nan

Character, Eye, World

"Go Forth (Vol. 16)". Interview with Brandon Hobson, logger.believermag.com. October 4, 2013.

The two hardest things about writing are starting and not stopping.

Stewart O'Nan

Writing, Two, Stopping

I don't like coming home. It keeps me from being nostalgic, which by nature I am. Even before the plane begins its descent, I find myself dreading the questions left unanswered by my childhood.

Stewart O'Nan

Home, Childhood, Nostalgic

Stewart O'Nan (2003). “Snow Angels: A Novel”, p.15, Macmillan

Saul Bellow once said, 'A writer is a reader who has moved to emulation' — which I think is true. I just started writing and made that jump from reader to writer and learned how hard it was, but also how much fun it was — losing myself in these imaginary worlds.

Stewart O'Nan

Fun, Writing, Thinking

The sins of the Midwest: flatness, emptiness, a necessary acceptance of the familiar. Where is the romance in being buried alive? In growing old?

Stewart O'Nan

Acceptance, Romance, Midwest

Stewart O'Nan (2008). “Songs for the Missing: A Novel”, p.12, Penguin

The happiest she'd ever been was with him, and the saddest. Was that the true test of love?

Stewart O'Nan

Love, Tests, Tests Of Love

It is not brilliance or facility that is necessary, but the determination to bear and even enjoy the dull process of wading into one's own bad prose again, and one more time, and then once again, with the utmost concentration and taste, looking for opportunities to mine deeper.

Stewart O'Nan

Determination, Opportunity, Dull

When I'm writing, I try to have the mask of my character on as I'm walking through the world. When I'm not at my desk, the rest of the time, I try to stay in that character and see the world the way that character would It's almost like method acting in a way — keeping the character close the way the actor keeps a script close and always tries to be in character.

Stewart O'Nan

Writing, Character, Trying

To be lost and forgotten-to be abandoned-is a shared and terrible fear, just as our fondest hope, as we grow older, is that we might leave some parts of us behind in the hearts of those we love and in that way live on.

Stewart O'Nan

Heart, Might, Way

Stewart O'Nan (2008). “The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy”, p.363, Anchor