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Elizabeth Strout Quotes
Elizabeth Strout Quotes
Elizabeth Strout
American
Author
Born:
Jan 6
,
1956
Love
Me
People
Think
Writing
You
Related authors:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Frederick Douglass
Helen Keller
Henry David Thoreau
Joyce Meyer
Mark Twain
Og Mandino
Zig Ziglar
My first job was when I was about 12, cleaning houses in the afternoons for different elderly women in town. I hated it.
Elizabeth Strout
Cleaning
Women
Job
First
Hated
About
Town
First Job
Houses
Different
Afternoon
Elderly
Without a doubt my mother was an inspiration for my writing. This is true in many ways, but mostly because she is a wonderful storyteller, without even knowing it.
Elizabeth Strout
Writing
Wonderful
Mother
Doubt
Ways
Inspiration
True
Knowing
She
Mostly
Because
Without
Storyteller
Many
Even
I love theater. I love sitting in an audience and having the actors right there, playing out what it means to be a human being.
Elizabeth Strout
Love
Human Being
Out
Having
Audience
Sitting
Human
Being
Theater
Means
Actor
Right
Playing
Oh, I wish I organized my books. But I don't. I'm not an organized person. The best I can do is put the books I really like in one sort of general area, and poetry in another.
Elizabeth Strout
Best
Wish
Books
General
Poetry
Area
Put
Like
Sort
Another
Person
Oh
Really
Organized
I've always been tremendously interested in criminal law. It goes to a deep interest I have in prisons and the criminal element, and what we do as a society with it. I've always been touched by the idea of criminality.
Elizabeth Strout
Law
Society
Tremendously
Criminal
Criminal Law
Criminality
Touched
Idea
Always
Prisons
Been
Goes
Interest
Interested
Deep
Element
If you get divorced in New York, you go into therapy and will talk to anybody you meet on the sidewalk about it.
Elizabeth Strout
You
Will
Meet
Sidewalk
About
Divorced
New
Talk
Go
Get
York
New York
Anybody
Therapy
Bullies are just frightened people.
Elizabeth Strout
People
Bullies
Frightened
Just
My parents were very, very, very strict.
Elizabeth Strout
Strict
Parents
Were
Very
I got a gerontology certificate a million years ago along with my law degree, so I've been interested in older people for many years. Some people grow up with a lot of kids around, but I just grew up with a lot of old people.
Elizabeth Strout
People
Law
Old
Degree
Some People
Older
Kids
Some
Along
Around
Got
Been
Years
Years Ago
Lot
Up
Just
Grew
Interested
Old People
Certificate
Many
Grow
Grow Up
Older People
Million
Million Years
I like people a lot, but I am not comfortable in literary New York situations. There is deep anxiety and tension around success here. I don't share problems I'm having about my work, and I think conversations around publishing are boring.
Elizabeth Strout
Success
Work
People
Anxiety
Problems
Think
Boring
About
Having
Share
Tension
New
Like
Comfortable
Around
Am
Lot
York
Situations
New York
Literary
Conversations
Deep
Publishing
Here
The purpose of fiction is not to make people seem nice. What makes anyone think people are nice? Look around you!
Elizabeth Strout
You
People
Nice
Think
Seem
Purpose
Look
Make
Around
Makes
Fiction
Anyone
As a novelist, I like the contained drama and complexity of the courtroom, though I don't watch those shows on TV. I prefer the hospital shows because I wanted to be a doctor.
Elizabeth Strout
Doctor
Drama
Those
Though
Complexity
TV
Hospital
Contained
Like
Because
Courtroom
Wanted
Prefer
Shows
Novelist
Watch
I'm so deeply interested in what it feels like to be other people that I get to operate under the illusion when I'm writing fiction that I'm not really revealing that much about myself. But, of course, I am, and I know that I am. And yet there's this sort of membrane that I get to work behind as I write my fiction, and I love it.
Elizabeth Strout
Work
Love
Myself
People
Writing
Illusion
Other
About
Write
Feels
Like
Know
Operate
Sort
Course
Revealing
Am
Get
Behind
Fiction
Interested
Much
Really
Deeply
Oh, I do a tremendous amount of rewriting. I just obsessively rewrite. Although sometimes there are sections, sometimes you're just lucky and a paragraph will just kind of come out. And that's great. But that's not ordinary in a day's work.
Elizabeth Strout
Work
Day
Great
You
Sometimes
Will
Tremendous
Tremendous Amount
Sections
Out
Kind
Paragraph
Come
Although
Oh
Just
Rewrite
Rewriting
Just Kind
Ordinary
Lucky
Amount
I don't ever really know where I get my characters from.
Elizabeth Strout
Characters
Know
Get
Where
Really
Ever
I love arranging the words and having them fall on the ear the right way, and you know you're not quite there, and you're redoing it and redoing it, and there's a wonderful thrill to it. But it is hard. It's a job of tremendous anxiety for me.
Elizabeth Strout
Love
Me
You
Wonderful
Anxiety
Words
Job
Fall
Tremendous
Way
Right Way
Thrill
Having
Know
Arranging
Quite
Them
Hard
Right
Ear
I don't think of myself as a fast reader. I just read a lot. When someone else might think, 'I might do the dishes,' I don't. But then the dishes multiply.
Elizabeth Strout
Myself
Think
Else
Someone
Read
Reader
Lot
Just
Dishes
Might
Then
Multiply
Fast
'Pnin' by Vladimir Nabokov, which is a literally small book, fit right in my common law book. I would sit in class and read it.
Elizabeth Strout
Class
Book
Law
Sit
Would
Small
Read
Fit
Common
Literally
Common Law
Which
Right
I sometimes miss the sense of excitement that I remember having when I was younger. I miss that sense of, 'Oh wow.' I think it's part of aging.
Elizabeth Strout
Sometimes
Remember
Sense
Think
Wow
Having
Part
Excitement
Miss
Oh
Younger
Aging
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