Laura van den Berg Quotes

Laura van den Berg

Laura van den Berg

American Writer

Born: 1983

Me Think Work World 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

The kind of dystopian books that I've always loved the most are the ones where you find yourself in a world that's less scorched-earth and instead a world that has just been made different. Laura van den Berg

You Yourself World Made Books Kind Find Instead Most Always Been Just Where Different Loved Dystopian Less

Children tell themselves stories, engage in self-delusion and fantasy, but those narratives are more evolving than calcified - and with that malleability comes both freedom and danger. Laura van den Berg

Freedom Danger Those Tell Evolving More Both Self-Delusion Narratives Than Children Stories Fantasy Themselves Engage

Havana is a uniquely complicated city and contains a great many histories. Laura van den Berg

Great Complicated City Havana Contains Histories Many Uniquely

I once took a workshop with Jim Shepard, and he has this term, 'rate-of-revelation,' that has come to mean a lot to me: 'the pace at which we're learning crucial emotional information about the stories' central figures.' An ever-increasing rate-of-revelation is good; a stagnant r-of-r is not. Laura van den Berg

America loves a good comeback story! Laura van den Berg

Good Comeback America Story Loves

I lived in Boston for three years, and during that time, I wrote my first collection of stories, 'What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us;' other stories that didn't make it into the collection; and several failed novel openings. Laura van den Berg

When I first left Florida for Boston, I was so eager to shed my Floridian identity, perhaps some of my earlier surreal gestures felt hollow and unconvincing because they were not rising from the particular brand of the uncanny I knew best. Laura van den Berg

Being scared by a movie offers a safe catharsis, because the terror is confined to the screen. It's an adrenalin spike, and when I come back down, I feel a bit more leveled. Laura van den Berg

As a genre, the best horror poses central human questions - Who can you trust? What is the cost of our secrets? What is our relationship to history? What are we blind to? What evils are lurking under the smooth surface of the self? - through radical dislocations. Laura van den Berg

Best Relationship History You Trust Radical Our Secrets Evils Cost Horror Through Self Blind Genre Smooth Surface Questions Human Central Who Lurking Poses

Paradoxically, the only thing that helps when I'm feeling despairing about writing is to write. Laura van den Berg

Writing Feeling Despairing Paradoxically About Only Write The Only Thing Helps Thing

As a young writer, I was sort of sailing around trying to 'find my voice' - for lack of a better term - and I was really chafing against the very minimal brand of domestic realism that I'd read so much of in college. Laura van den Berg

My students are often asking me, 'What do you think are the most important qualities for a writer?' And one thing I always tells them is that it's helpful to be willing to sit in a space of uncertainty. There are entire years, especially with novels, where you really don't know where the project is going. Laura van den Berg

Me You Space Important Sit Think Project Willing Tells One Thing Entire Uncertainty Writer Students Know Most Qualities Always Years Going Often The Most Important Where Them Asking Really Helpful Novels Thing

In 'The Third Hotel,' my narrator, Claire, is wrestling with this sense of perpetual unfinishedness. She's trying to make sense of her husband's death, how someone's life can just stop and not continue, and of the lack of resolution in her own inner life. Laura van den Berg

Life Death Husband Own Sense Claire Someone Wrestling Hotel She Make Narrator How Continue Perpetual Trying Lack Just Stop Her Inner Inner Life Third Resolution

I think writing, or any form of art-making, is a way to prepare for not being here. Not that we can. No amount of preparing can really ready us, in a meaningful way, for the great void that awaits us all. Laura van den Berg

Great Writing Think Way Void Ready Any Being Form Meaningful Meaningful Way Us Really Awaits Prepare Preparing Amount Here

In terms of specific cinematic influences, certainly I'd recommend 'Juan de los Muertos,' and I also really love this French zombie movie - 'Les Revenants' - where the dead reanimate for no apparent reason. Laura van den Berg

Love Cinematic Recommend Terms Juan Also Dead French Los Where Influences Movie Really Les Certainly Reason Apparent Specific Zombie

Holy cow - everything about writing a novel is hard for me. Laura van den Berg

Me Writing Everything About Cow Holy Hard Novel

I wager we have a vast amount of literature out there that tends to the stories of men, so I've never really worried too much about attending to stories of women. Laura van den Berg

Women Too Much Men Too Worried Out About Vast Tends Never Attending Wager Stories Literature Much Really Amount

I lived in Florida until I was 22. Laura van den Berg

Until Lived Florida

In fiction, we are not bound by social convention, so the things that mystify and unsettle are allowed to rise to the surface. Laura van den Berg

Rise Allowed Bound Surface Convention Fiction Social Things

With both novels and short stories, I think a lot in terms of character arcs, when it comes to endings. Laura van den Berg

Character Think Both Terms Lot Endings Short Stories Short Stories Novels

If I'm really rolling with a short story, I work on it everywhere and end up with a finished draft in a couple months, but a novel really demands that I step out of my life and vanish into the world of the book. Laura van den Berg

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