26 Amor Towles Quotes for You to Enjoy

Amor Towles

American Novelist

Born: 1964

Book Down First Me Myself Writing

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

In the contemporary world, we think of politeness as surface behavior, like frosting - it's sweet and attractive and finishes off the cake. But 19th century nobility and the enlightened thinkers and stoics before them viewed manners in a very different way. To them, manners are an outward expression of an inward struggle. Amor Towles

Struggle World Cake Behavior Before Manners Sweet Think Way Finishes Nobility Outward Like Contemporary Inward Attractive Contemporary World Politeness Surface Off Very Different Them Century Viewed Expression Different Way Thinkers Enlightened

When I visited Moscow for the first time in 1998, I wandered into the historic Metropol Hotel as a curious tourist simply to ogle the giant painted glass ceiling that hangs over the grand restaurant off the lobby. It was the memory of that short visit that prompted me, some years later, to set 'A Gentleman in Moscow' in the hotel. Amor Towles

Time Me Memory First Gentleman Lobby Later Giant Visit Visited Restaurant Prompted Some Simply Tourist Glass Hotel Over Moscow First Time Years Off Historic Ceiling Curious Short Wandered Grand Painted Set

You can build a place that is beautiful, but nobody feels comfortable sitting in it, and the kids aren't allowed to go into many of the rooms. Or a place can look lived in, but it doesn't please the eye. Amor Towles

Beautiful You Build Please Kids Eye Allowed Nobody Feels Look Comfortable Go Sitting Place Rooms Many Lived

I've been writing fiction since I was a kid. From the age of 15 to 25, I probably wrote more than 50 short stories, one of which was published in 'The Paris Review' in 1989. Amor Towles

Age Writing Kid More Paris Since Wrote Been Review Than Short Fiction Stories Short Stories Which Published

As awful as the crimes of Stalinism were, the vast majority of the Russian population was trying to survive, to love, to have a sense of purpose. Amor Towles

Love Sense Crimes Russian Purpose Vast Vast Majority Majority Were Survive Trying To Love To Survive Stalinism Population Awful

Growing up, I didn't come from a musical family. Neither of my parents played an instrument, sang out loud, or listened to the radio with frequency. The record collection in the living room was only about 2 feet long - and that included 4 solid inches of Neil Diamond and Herb Alpert. Amor Towles

Family Long Parents Diamond Living Musical Solid Out Neil Neil Diamond Collection Neither Record Record Collection About Only Feet Come Instrument Frequency Up Loud Listened Room Sang Inches Radio Included Growing Growing Up Herb Living Room Played

Dad has worked as a banker at the same firm in Boston, living in the same suburban neighborhood for over 50 years. Later in life, when I got out of graduate school and imagined myself living the life of a writer like Hemingway or Kerouac, his practical self inevitably encouraged me to get a steady a job and raise a family, just like he did. Amor Towles

Life Myself Family Me School Job Living Later Neighborhood Out Steady Boston Writer Self He Firm Over Like Practical Got Inevitably His Years Encouraged Get Did Same Graduate Graduate School Just Banker Suburban Worked Dad Hemingway Raise Imagined

I totally remember that: being 25 and unemployed and trying to stretch each cappuccino for 60 minutes. Amor Towles

Remember Minutes Totally Unemployed Trying Being Each Stretch

I think that, every individual you invent in narrative work, you have to have some root in who that person is. That may be an aspect of yourself; it may be an aspect of something that you like, that you don't like. It may be an aspect that you wish you had. Maybe something you admire in another person. Amor Towles

We study, as Americans, the extreme aspects of repression under the Stalinist era. We're focused on them. The vast majority of Russian citizens, it was a much softer type of being disconcerted. Amor Towles

Softer Type Extreme Focused Citizens Russian Vast Vast Majority Study Majority Era American Being Repression Them Much Aspects

Every year, I would spend weeks at a time in the hotels of distant cities. Amor Towles

Time Year Every Spend Distant Cities Would Weeks Hotels

When I was 10 years old, I threw a bottle with a note in it in the ocean in Massachusetts, and Harrison Salisbury found it and contacted me. We began a correspondence that lasted for years, and I eventually met him when I was 18. Amor Towles

Me Old Met Ocean Lasted Correspondence Threw Bottle Massachusetts Him Years Began Note Found Eventually

In retrospect, the pace of change in the arts and industry in the nineteenth century seems pretty glacial. Painting, music, the novel, architecture were all evolving, but at a pretty observable pace. Amor Towles

Music Change Architecture Painting Nineteenth Nineteenth Century Evolving Pretty Seems Observable Retrospect Industry Were Arts Pace Century Novel

Some writers such as John Cheever and Raymond Carver seem to draw artistic energy from analyzing the realm of their own experiences - their social circles and memories and mores. I'm one of those who draw creative energy from the opposite. Amor Towles

Say I lived until 80 and read a book a month seriously, that means I was looking at 480 books left in my life. If I had only 480 left, I wanted to stop sifting through material I didn't have confidence in and turn my attention to those that I know merited my reading. Amor Towles

Life Confidence Book Seriously My Life Looking Reading Books Month Say Those Only Through Had Attention Know Until Read Material Left Stop Wanted Turn Means Lived

In my college years, I would retreat to our summer house for two weeks in June to read a novel a day. How exciting it was, after pouring my coffee and making myself comfortable on the porch, to open the next book on the roster, read the first sentences, and find myself on the platform of a train station. Amor Towles

Myself Day Book Coffee College First Our Summer Station Would Find Weeks Pouring Open Exciting Retreat House Read Comfortable How Making Years Train June After Sentences Next Novel Platform Porch Two Two Weeks

One restaurant I visit without fail, whenever I'm in the Bay Area, is the Boulevard at 1 Mission Street, a few strides from the waterfront. It has excellent food and wine very much in the modern California style, but I go there less for any one dish than for the pleasure of dining with the restaurant's chefs. Amor Towles

Food Wine Style Few Waterfront Strides Pleasure Visit Bay Bay Area Dining Restaurant Area Excellent Fail Boulevard Mission California Without Chefs Go Very Than Modern Any Whenever Dish Much Less Street

Strangely enough, my favorite airport is Logan Airport in Boston - but largely for sentimental reasons. My first real summer job was working as a journeyman for the airport's resident maintenance crew - a small army of union electricians, plumbers, and carpenters. Amor Towles

When I sat down to write 'Rules of Civility,' I didn't write it for anybody but myself. I wasn't trying to make my mark or make money. I wasn't anxious about feeding my kids or whether my father would be proud of me. Amor Towles

I had a 20-year career. I have two children. The advantage of writing later in my life is that I already had a whole mature realm of accomplishments and responsibilities, an identity outside of being a writer. Amor Towles

Life Writing My Life Later Responsibilities Writer Outside Had Advantage Identity Accomplishments Mature Being Children Realm Whole Career Two

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