23 Anthony Marra Quotes for You to Enjoy

Anthony Marra

American Writer

Book Chechnya First Think Writing You

Related authors: Dale Carnegie Denis Waitley Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Ray Bradbury W. E. B. Du Bois William Arthur Ward

For the uninitiated, 'Calvin and Hobbes' is a daily comic strip detailing the antics of an unruly six-year-old and his misanthropic stuffed tiger. The boy, whose vocabulary is packed with more 10-dollar words than a GRE flashcard set, is named after John Calvin, the Reformation-era theologian who preached the doctrine of predestination. Anthony Marra

Daily Words Strip Detailing John Vocabulary More Unruly Stuffed Named Doctrine Tiger Boy Comic Comic Strip His Preached Than Hobbes Predestination After Packed Theologian Who Whose Set

Bill Watterson argued with his medium even as he eclipsed it. He was all too aware that no artistic expression better exemplifies our disposable consumer culture than the daily newspaper comic strip: today's masterpiece is tomorrow's birdcage lining. Anthony Marra

Today Daily Culture Better Tomorrow Too Medium Our Strip Eclipsed Argued Consumer He Masterpiece Comic Comic Strip His Lining Than Artistic Artistic Expression Newspaper Bill Even Disposable Expression Aware

Ever since studying in Russia as a college student, I had been in a long-distance, one-sided love affair with Chechnya's remarkable history, culture and rugged natural beauty. Anthony Marra

Love History Culture Natural Rugged College Beauty Natural Beauty One-Sided College Student Russia Remarkable Student Had Long-Distance Chechnya Studying Since Affair Been Love Affair Ever

Research is not an obstacle, something to be frightened of. It can be one of the real joys of writing. Anthony Marra

Writing Research Something Obstacle Joys Real Frightened

A novel can grant humanity even to those who act inhumanely, and by making men and women of monsters, it can offer not only a ground-level view of a particular conflict, but a descent into the substratum of human nature capable of the incomprehensible. Anthony Marra

Nature Women Conflict Humanity Men Men And Women Human Nature Monsters Those Only Particular Making Offer Human Capable Act View Grant Who Descent Even Novel Incomprehensible

My first real awareness of Chechnya came when I was a college student studying in Russia. I arrived in St. Petersburg about two months after Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated for her reports on Chechnya. I lived with an elderly woman and her grown children in an apartment that was not too far from the neighborhood military cadet school. Anthony Marra

Woman School College First Military Awareness Too Months Neighborhood College Student About Russia Student Cadet Anna Chechnya Studying Real Came Arrived Reports Children After Apartment Elderly Far Lived Grown Her Two

I read all of the nonfiction that I could find on Chechnya, and all the while, I was searching for a novel that was set there. I couldn't find a single novel written in English that was set in the period of the two most recent Chechen wars. Anthony Marra

Single Find Could Written Chechnya Most Period Read Nonfiction While English Wars Novel Searching Recent Two Set

There was something about the idea of Russia that I found very intriguing, and I think I had romanticized it a lot. Anthony Marra

Think Intriguing About Russia Something Had Idea Lot Very Found

Wars break things; they break stories. Anthony Marra

Stories Break Wars Things

I stopped by Politics & Prose to sign a few copies of 'Constellation.' A couple days later, I learned that Barack Obama also stopped by and left with one of them. Anthony Marra

Politics Few Later Sign Obama Prose Days Couple Also Learned Left Stopped Barack Barack Obama Them Copies

I wanted to be a writer, but at the time, I spent my days working a retail job, my nights sleeping in my childhood bedroom, and while I had written short stories here and there, I didn't know how to write good fiction anymore than I knew how to perform good brain surgery. Anthony Marra

Time Good Job Nights Sleeping Spent Write Retail Writer Had Written Knew Perform Days Know How Bedroom Surgery Brain Brain Surgery Than Childhood Short Anymore Fiction Wanted Stories Short Stories While Working Here

When I came to the last line of 'Car Crash While Hitchhiking,' I read it as a pitiless statement of indifference: a refusal to warn the family of their impending collision, a refusal to help when miraculously spared, a refusal to act on the empathy hiding behind the story's language. Anthony Marra

Family Language Car Statement Hiding Miraculously Indifference Collision Impending Empathy Read Came Line Behind Refusal Crash Story While Spared Warn Act Help Last

For the years I spent working on it, 'Constellation' was the only novel I knew how to write, so maybe I still abided by the maxim? Regardless, I prefer the maxim: Write what you want to know, rather than what you already know. Anthony Marra

You Spent Rather Only Write Knew Know How Still Years Than Maxim Maybe Want Regardless Prefer Working Novel

A novel can enlarge the empathy and imagination of both its author and its reader, and my experience, that sense of enlargement is most intense when I'm transported beyond the narrow limits of my daily life. Anthony Marra

Life Daily Experience Sense Imagination Both Empathy Beyond Most Reader Narrow Limits Author Intense Novel Daily Life Enlargement

After spending the last few years working on a serious novel set in Chechnya, I was drawn to both the brevity and casualness of Twitter, and wrote a series of tweets titled 'The Erotic Inner Life of Mr. Bates from Downton Abbey.' Anthony Marra

Life Few Twitter Spending Drawn Abbey Both Chechnya Wrote Years After Working Brevity Tweets Novel Series Serious Downton Abbey Inner Last Inner Life Last Few Years Set

At Grozny TV, the line between journalism and government propaganda is traversed as often as a Manhattan crosswalk. Anthony Marra

Government TV Propaganda Journalism Between Line Often Manhattan

Despite my best efforts, word that an American tourist was in town quickly made its way around Grozny. That I had come to Chechnya not for business or NGO work, but to see the sites and meet the people, was notable enough to be broadcast throughout the republic. Anthony Marra

Work Best Business People Word Made Enough Meet Despite Broadcast Way See Throughout Had Tourist Chechnya Town Come Around Quickly Efforts American Sites Republic Notable

Chechnya forms the bookends to Tolstoy's career. He began writing his first novel, 'Childhood,' while in Starogladovskaya in Northern Chechnya, and his final novel, 'Hadji Murad,' is set in the Russo-Chechen War of the 19th century. Anthony Marra

War Writing First Final He Chechnya His Began Northern Childhood While Forms Century Novel Tolstoy Career Set

During the 20th century, Chechnya was written about by local poets and novelists, as well as writers from Russia and Central Asia, but very little is available in English translation. Anthony Marra

Translation Local About Russia Poets Writers Written Chechnya Well Very Central Available Little Asia Century English Novelists

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