27 Darin Strauss Quotes for You to Enjoy

Darin Strauss

American Writer

Born: Mar 1, 1970

About Fiction Good People 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

In Minneapolis, I learned that there are more theaters per square mile than in any U.S. city but New York, and we also had great Midwestern beef in our salads in a plaza overlooking the national headquarters of Target, Inc. Darin Strauss

Great National Plaza Our City Minneapolis Per More Had New Headquarters Also Learned Overlooking Beef Salads Target Square Than York Any New York Theaters Midwestern Mile

Too much contemporary fiction seems purposefully to address small things in small ways. And yet why not try for the all-inclusive, the gripping, for the audacious? Darin Strauss

Small Things Try Too Much Too Address Ways Seems Small Contemporary Audacious Fiction Gripping Much Why Why Not Things

For the fiction students I teach, one of the most common mistakes is to start in the wrong place. Often the actual story doesn't begin until about a third of the way into their narratives. They start off instead with excessive scene-setting, metaphysical speculation, introducing nonessential dramatis personae, throat-clearing, etc. Darin Strauss

Mistakes Way Introducing About Excessive Students Wrong Instead Wrong Place Most Until Narratives Metaphysical Off Begin Often Common Fiction Story Place Etc Teach Actual Start Speculation Third

When you write fiction, you have an ideal reader in your mind who's sort of you but smarter. Darin Strauss

You Mind Write Ideal Smarter Reader Sort Fiction Your

The starkest rejection letter might be followed by a million-dollar advance. Don't let rejection start to look the same as failure. Darin Strauss

Failure Rejection Followed Advance Look Same Might Letter Start

Constant rejection. No security. Career paths being dictated by freelance reviewers. And of course, the terror of the writing desk, of the blank page. Why is it so hard for our non-writer friends to understand this - that it's a job? Darin Strauss

In order for a narrative to work, the primary character should have a concrete desire - a need that drives her story - and the story's writer should make this goal known to the reader pretty early in the narrative. Darin Strauss

Work Character Pretty Writer Drives Primary Make Known Reader Narrative Concrete Goal Order Story Should Her Early Desire Need

A subplot is a distinguishing characteristic of the novel; the short story, for example, does not need subplots. Darin Strauss

Example Characteristic Distinguishing For Example Does Short Short Story Story Novel Need

A good writer knows that if her style and perceptions are really cooking, she can bring anything off. It's okay, of course, for novelists to depict bland, average families living bland, average lives in bland, average towns. But it isn't okay when those novelists don't outshine their bland, average subjects. Darin Strauss

Good Cooking Style Living Those Okay Perceptions Bland Writer Good Writer Towns She Knows Course Off Subjects Families Depict Anything Average Really Novelists Lives Her Bring

Maybe the 'Million Little Pieces' of the world are so popular because no one ever writes memoirs about PTA chairwomen; what memoirists do, and often get in trouble for, is bring interesting lives to light. Darin Strauss

World Light Trouble Memoirs About Writes No-One Pieces Because Get Often Maybe Interesting Little Popular Ever Lives Million Bring

My knowledge of trains - and love before first sight, love at negative-one sight - comes from Alfred Hitchcock. Darin Strauss

Love Knowledge First Before Alfred Hitchcock Sight Hitchcock Trains

Perhaps it's because a writer lives in Brooklyn that he'd want to get away from it. It can be very sustaining, this community of writers - sometimes it's the feeling of many hands giving you a boost. But all that identical ambition can be choking, too. The many hands slide up to your throat. Darin Strauss

You Sometimes Giving Feeling Ambition Community Too Slide Boost Brooklyn Throat Writer Writers He Perhaps Identical Because Up Very Get Hands Want Sustaining Your Choking Many Away Lives

I have twin six-year-old boys. Have no mojo. The closest thing to a mojo I have is five minutes of peace. Darin Strauss

Peace Minutes Boy Five Closest Closest Thing Mojo Twin Thing

Surprisingly, Manhattan casts a sort of undersized shadow onto Long Island. Where I grew up, everyone seemed totally disconnected from the city - ours could have been any suburb, anywhere - though when traffic was thin, it took us only half an hour to get into midtown. Darin Strauss

Long Half Took Everyone Though Ours City Shadow Totally Seemed Only Long Island Casts Could Onto Hour Sort Island Disconnected Been Surprisingly Traffic Up Get Any Where Manhattan Grew Anywhere Suburb Us Thin

Memoirs are - memory is - rarely 100 percent accurate. Any autobiography is a construct, ballpark, even unnatural. Private diaries, too, can be unreliable - a detail that matters only if the diary is read. Darin Strauss

My prayer is improvised - though like some standard jazz performance, the improv happens within pretty strict parameters - and asks for nothing. Darin Strauss

Prayer Strict Nothing Jazz Though Parameters Some Pretty Performance Like Within Improv Improvised Happens Ask Standard

Now, whether my not asking for good things to happen to me is subconsciously intended to win me brownie points with God is something I can't answer. But I do feel the need to give thanks and also not to feel hypocritical by asking for things when I have doubts that God would answer me. Darin Strauss

God Good Me Good Things Win Thanks Would Give Something Points Hypocritical Feel Also Answer Subconsciously Intended Happen Whether Asking Doubts Now Things Need

What makes writing a memoir difficult is harder to quantify. Is it learning to know when you're ready to talk about something? Is it seeing the structure in a lumpen mass of fact? Is it finding out what you were really like as other people saw you? Yes to each. Darin Strauss

You Learning People Writing Difficult Other Saw Out Memoir Finding Seeing About Something Structure Fact Mass Like Know Talk Quantify Makes Ready Were Yes Really Each Harder

I'm very strict in my belief that non-fiction should be truthful, and fiction is for invented narratives. Darin Strauss

Strict Invented Non-Fiction Narratives Very Truthful Fiction Should Belief

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