20 Ben Dolnick Quotes for You to Enjoy

Ben Dolnick

American Writer

Born: 1982

Love Me People Work 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 a long time, since story collections look almost precisely like novels, I presumed that they were meant to be enjoyed in the same way as novels. Ben Dolnick

Time Long Long Time Way Collections Almost Since Like Look Were Same Precisely Story Meant Meant To Be Novels Enjoyed

For me, novel-writing, by its nature, contains months of feeling lost, gloomy, fatally misguided. The challenge has always been in assuring myself that by setting one foot in front of the other, I will eventually make my way out of the desert. Ben Dolnick

Myself Nature Me Challenge Will Feeling Lost Setting Other Assuring Way Months Out Foot Misguided Contains Make Gloomy Always Been Front Desert Eventually

When I started researching the eco effects of eating meat, I'd assumed, for no good reason, that environmental irresponsibility would correspond to both animal size and deliciousness: Eating cows would be worst, eating pigs would be a bit less bad, and eating chickens would be basically harmless. Ben Dolnick

Environmental Good Animal Assumed Harmless Bit Worst Correspond Bad Would Would-Be Eating Good Reason Both Pigs Chickens Effects Cows Irresponsibility Size Less Reason Researching Meat Started Basically

Literary interviews are inevitably packed with the nuts and bolts of how writers do their work, and there's very little that aspiring writers do more readily than fling other people's nuts and bolts into their toolboxes. Ben Dolnick

Work People Other Interviews Nuts More Writers Readily How Inevitably Very Than Literary Little Packed Aspiring Fling Bolts

I've sold all but one of my microphones, put away my mini-notebooks, stopped scouring the Internet for scraps of wisdom. Ben Dolnick

Wisdom Internet Sold Put Scraps Stopped Away

A novel quite possibly won't be good and, even more possibly, will have not-good parts, but at least it won't shape-shift on you; at least you can say that you're halfway through and know that this maps onto some clear, visualizable chunk of narrative. Ben Dolnick

I know very well that to admit to loving Bright Eyes is to admit to having an overgrown brain region devoted to self-pity, sentimentality, regret, and a handful of other not very appealing emotional states. Ben Dolnick

Eyes Regret Other States Admit Having Emotional Know Well Devoted Self-Pity Brain Handful Very Loving Region Sentimentality Appealing Bright

Oberst is one of those musicians that some people hate in a visceral, biological way. Ben Dolnick

Musicians Hate People Some People Way Visceral Those Some Biological

If you were placing bets on which author would write the tenderest, most moving book about fatherhood, Philip Roth would probably come in at the bottom of the list. Ben Dolnick

You Book Philip Fatherhood Would About Bets Write Bottom Come Most Were Author List Which Placing Moving Roth

To write fiction is to think that you're doing it wrong - that your work habits are inhibiting you; that you've chosen the wrong subject; that you've chosen the right subject, but that someone else has, unbeknownst to you, already written exactly the book you're laboring over. Ben Dolnick

Work You Book Think Else Exactly Someone Habits Write Written Wrong Over Doing Subject Fiction Your Chosen Right

Herta Muller, Mo Yan, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio - for many of us, the Nobels have become doubly educational: We simultaneously learn of an author's existence and find out that we ought to have been reading him or her all along. Ben Dolnick

Reading Become Ought Out Find Simultaneously Along Him Learn Educational Been Existence Author Us Doubly Many Her

People often talk about the characters in books as if they were considering whom to invite to a dinner party. 'Oh, I just hated her - she was so mean.' 'He's a bully; I didn't like how he treated his mother.' Ben Dolnick

People Mother Dinner Party Books Considering Characters Dinner Party Hated About He Invite Like Talk She How Were His Bully Often Oh Just Mean Whom Her Treated

Philip Roth has made a cottage industry of unlikable characters, but compared with Mickey Sabbath, the furious and profane protagonist of 'Sabbath's Theater,' Roth's earlier creations seem like Winnie the Pooh. Ben Dolnick

Made Philip Furious Characters Seem Cottage Sabbath Like Protagonist Industry Mickey Theater Creations Profane Roth Compared Earlier

'At Freddie's' takes place in 1960s London at the Temple Stage School for child actors. It has a plot that makes you feel sorry for the people who have to write summaries on the backs of books. Ben Dolnick

When I first read 'At Freddie's', I was struggling with my own writing, particularly with how to write about a sad subject - the death of a parent - without writing an entirely sad book. Ben Dolnick

Sad Death Book Writing First Own About Parent Entirely My Own Struggling Write Particularly Read Without How Subject

Penelope Fitzgerald's nine novels are thin enough that if you were so inclined, you could take her entire literary output down from the shelf with a single stretched hand. You'd be holding an eclectic bunch. Ben Dolnick

Every morning as I begin my work day, my computer presents me with the usual array of garbage: email, Twitter, updates on the state of the nation, updates on the state of the sneakers I just ordered. Ben Dolnick

Work Day Morning Me Nation Garbage Every Twitter State Email Computer Array Sneakers Begin Just Ordered Usual Presents

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