73 Jennifer Egan Quotes for You to Enjoy

Jennifer Egan

American Novelist

Born: Sep 7, 1962

Book Me Think Time Writing You

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

I think the one thing that's changed over time is that I've come to realise, as a fiction writer, the fact that I don't think it will work out, doesn't mean that it actually won't. Jennifer Egan

Work Time Will Think Changed Out One Thing Fact Writer Over Come The One Thing Fiction Fiction Writer Realise Mean Work Out Actually Thing

'Look at Me' started with Rockford, Illinois and New York and the question of how much image culture was changing our inner lives. That's an abstract idea; you don't think that's going to be a rocking work of fiction, but it seemed to fuse in a way that was interesting. Jennifer Egan

Work Me You Culture Think Changing Our Way Fuse Seemed Abstract Idea New Look How How Much Rocking Question York Going New York Fiction Interesting Much Illinois Lives Image Inner Started

The music industry is an interesting lens through which to look at change, because it has had such a difficult time adjusting to the digital age. Jennifer Egan

Music Time Change Age Digital Difficult Digital Age Music Industry Adjusting Through Had Look Industry Because Which Interesting Lens Difficult Time

I am at my worst trying to write about things that overlap with my life. Jennifer Egan

Life My Life Worst About Write Overlap Am Trying Things

People define themselves to some degree by the music that they listened to as teens. My mom had Elvis. Me, I had 'The Who' and later punk rock. Kids who came up in the '80s had other songs and bands. It's a way of placing ourselves culturally and temporally. Jennifer Egan

Music Mom Me People Punk Degree Other Teens Elvis Later Way Define Kids Ourselves Punk Rock Some Had Songs Rock Came Up Bands Listened The Who Placing Themselves Who

I listened to classic rock and roll, and punk rock. 'Goon Squad' provides a pretty accurate playlist of my teenage years, though it leaves out 'The Who,' which was my absolute favorite band. Jennifer Egan

Punk Band Teenage Teenage Years Though Favorite Punk Rock Out Classic Pretty Classic Rock Absolute Rock Rock And Roll Leaves Years Provides Squad Accurate Roll Listened The Who Which Who

Nowadays I'm more interested in what you'd call 'alternative.' Lately we've been listening to a lot of Mumford & Sons, and Jenny Owen Youngs. I'm also pretty crazy about the Kings of Convenience, a Norwegian band that's been compared to Simon and Garfunkel. Jennifer Egan

It seemed impossible that a scrappy book like 'Goon Squad' could win an award like that. It's such an iconic honor. I think what the Pulitzer means to me is that I'll need to work very, very hard to try to live up to it. Jennifer Egan

I'm not a wildly gifted person; I don't play an instrument or speak another language or have great accomplishments in another field, as many writers do. But writing feels natural to me; the act of it seems to free up my unconscious, so that sometimes I feel that I have access to more ideas and information than my conscious mind could think up. Jennifer Egan

Great Me Natural Writing Speak Sometimes Language Mind Free Field Think Wildly Gifted Seems More Could Writers Unconscious Feel Feels Ideas Instrument Another Access Accomplishments Up Than Person Information Act Many Play Conscious Conscious Mind

Technology makes everyone feel old. A laptop is old after two years. Someone always has something newer. Everyone seems to feel obsolete now, even the young. Jennifer Egan

Technology Old Young Everyone Someone Seems Something Feel Obsolete Makes Always Years After Laptop Even Now Two

I'm a dogged person. I respond to adversity with a steely resistance. Jennifer Egan

Adversity Respond Steely Dogged Person Resistance

I loved every minute of my childhood - sunbathing on the fire escape, digging for buried treasure in the back yard, pulling alewives out of the sand... Then it was all taken away from me. I came back every summer to visit my father until I was 18, but I was always the outsider. Jennifer Egan

Me Father Fire Every Digging Back Summer Visit Out Minute Outsider Taken Until Yard Always Came Escape Childhood Buried Loved Sand Then Away Treasure Pulling

I think literary theory satisfied a deep love I have for big, encompassing narratives about the world and how it works - which are usually, in the end, more creative visions unto themselves than illuminating explanations. Jennifer Egan

Love Creative World Big Satisfied Think Visions About More Unto Narratives How Encompassing End Than Literary In The End Which Explanations Themselves Theory Deep Works Deep Love Illuminating

With 'The Keep,' I began with a theory about pitting the isolated disconnection of the gothic realm against present-day hyperconnectedness. I emerged feeling that the gothic genre is all about hyperconnectedness - the possibility of disembodied communication - and that we now live in a kind of permanently gothic state. Jennifer Egan

As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist. Jennifer Egan

States Mutually Mutually Exclusive Somehow Writer Exclusive Reader Happiest Apparently Coexist

One futuristic novel that had a huge impact on me was Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein,' which is kind of science fiction plus Gothic. Jennifer Egan

Me Science Frankenstein Kind Futuristic Impact Plus Mary Had Science Fiction Shelley Gothic Huge Huge Impact Fiction Which Novel

I haven't read a lot of science fiction, and I never intend to write it; it seems to happen a little bit inadvertently for me, in that I'm trying to follow people into points in their lives that demand that I investigate the future. Jennifer Egan

Future Me Science People Bit Follow Seems Write Investigate Points Never Demand Read Science Fiction Lot Intend Trying Fiction Happen Little Inadvertently Little Bit Lives

Jennifer Egan Quotes

No more Jennifer Egan quotes