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Baking is more like chemistry, following certain instructions and knowing what comes out in the end. It's almost reassuring! Songwriting is a creative process where you go into a session with nothing and can come out of it with something incredible in the end. I never feel like I'm taking a risk with baking, but always with songwriting.
Alice Merton
You
Creative
Creative Process
Chemistry
Nothing
Incredible
Out
Following
Something
Risk
More
Never
Songwriting
Taking
Almost
Feel
Come
Like
Baking
Instructions
Knowing
Always
Go
End
Where
In The End
Process
Certain
Reassuring
Session
When I was younger, I always wanted to be either a pianist or a classical singer, and when I discovered songwriting, it was like a new portal had been opened.
Alice Merton
Classical
Pianist
Had
Songwriting
Opened
New
Like
Singer
Always
Been
Discovered
Wanted
Either
Younger
I don't think I ever had a certain image of what touring was like... I think when you're young, you think it's very glamourous, but it's not.
Alice Merton
You
Young
Think
Had
Touring
Like
Very
Certain
Ever
Image
I get mad about something, and then I have this melody in my head, and then afterwards, the lyrics come.
Alice Merton
Lyrics
Melody
Mad
About
Something
Head
Come
Get
Afterwards
Then
I'm not going to release something just because they think it's the next hit. It's not what everyone wants to hear, but that's the way it is.
Alice Merton
Think
Everyone
Way
Release
Something
Because
Hear
Hit
Going
Just
Just Because
Wants
Next
I'm definitely sleep deprived - it is so hard to sleep on a tour bus! It moves around so much, and we have really weird time schedules.
Alice Merton
Time
Definitely
Schedules
Tour
Tour Bus
Weird
Around
Moves
Bus
Deprived
Much
Really
Hard
Sleep
You don't really learn how to write songs; you learn to develop as a writer, and you get to meet lots of musicians and figure out what kind of sound you want. You have the time to just develop and try different styles, and that's what I did.
Alice Merton
Time
You
Musicians
Try
Meet
Out
Kind
Write
Writer
Develop
Songs
Learn
Styles
How
Sound
Lots
Get
Did
Just
Different
Want
Really
Figure
Different Styles
The stories are not autobiographical, but they're personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I've learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.
Alice Munro
Way
Some
Some Things
Seem
Only
Through
Observation
Feel
Know
Learned
Surely
Personal
Autobiographical
Stories
Things
I have never kept diaries. I just remember a lot and am more self-centered than most people.
Alice Munro
People
Remember
More
Never
Self-Centered
Most
Am
Diaries
Lot
Than
Just
Kept
I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.
Alice Munro
Time
People
Looking
Those
Out
Admire
Window
Seemed
Tennis
Learn
Bridge
Play
Things
Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories - and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.
Alice Munro
Memory
People
Other
Our
Way
Ourselves
Telling
Somewhat
Version
Different
Stories
Keep
'Royal Beatings' was my first story, and it was published in 1977. But I sent all my early stories to 'The New Yorker' in the 1950s, and then I stopped sending for a long time and sent only to magazines in Canada. 'The New Yorker' sent me nice notes, though - penciled, informal messages. They never signed them. They weren't terribly encouraging.
Alice Munro
Time
Me
Long
Long Time
First
Nice
Though
Signed
Magazines
Only
Never
New
Messages
Terribly
Were
Encouraging
Canada
Yorker
Sending
Stopped
New Yorker
Stories
Informal
Story
Sent
Them
Notes
Then
Published
Early
Royal
'The New Yorker' was really my first experience with serious editing. Previously, I'd more or less just had copyediting with a few suggestions - not much.
Alice Munro
Experience
Editing
First
Few
More
More Or Less
Had
New
Yorker
Just
New Yorker
Much
Really
Less
Serious
Suggestions
Maybe I should say that memory interests me a great deal, because I think we all tell stories of our lives to ourselves as well as to other people. Well, women do, anyway. Women do this a lot. And I think when men get older, they do this too, but maybe in slightly different terms.
Alice Munro
Great
Me
Memory
Women
People
Great Deal
Men
Older
Think
Too
Other
Our
Our Lives
Say
Slightly
Ourselves
Tell
Terms
Well
Because
Deal
Lot
Get
Maybe
Different
Stories
Anyway
Interests
Should
Lives
People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I'm not sure it's the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.
Alice Munro
Life
People
Writing
Past
Bit
Ways
Cities
Kind
Would
More
Suppose
Sure
Were
Different
In The Past
Now
Aware
Different Ways
Starting
While working on my first five books, I kept wishing I was writing a novel. I thought until you wrote a novel, you weren't taken seriously as a writer. It used to trouble me a lot, but nothing troubles me now, and besides, there has been a change. I think short stories are taken more seriously now than they were.
Alice Munro
Me
You
Change
Writing
Seriously
Thought
Trouble
First
Nothing
Think
Books
Has-Been
Besides
More
Writer
Troubles
Taken
Wishing
Until
Wrote
Were
Been
Lot
Five
Than
Short
Stories
Short Stories
While
Working
Used
Novel
Now
Kept
I got interested in reading very early, because a story was read to me, by Hans Christian Andersen, which was 'The Little Mermaid,' and I don't know if you remember 'The Little Mermaid,' but it's dreadfully sad. The little mermaid falls in love with this prince, but she cannot marry him because she is a mermaid.
Alice Munro
Sad
Love
Me
You
Remember
Reading
Christian
Marry
Mermaid
Prince
Know
She
Him
Read
Because
Got
Falls
Very
Cannot
Story
Which
Interested
Little
Early
In those early days, the important thing was the happy ending. I did not tolerate unhappy endings - for my heroines, anyway. And later on, I began to read things like 'Wuthering Heights,' and very, very unhappy endings would take place, so I changed my ideas completely and went in for the tragic, which I enjoyed.
Alice Munro
Happy
Ending
Unhappy
Important
Heights
Changed
Heroines
Later
Those
Would
Take
Days
Like
Ideas
Read
Important Thing
Tragic
Began
Very
Did
Endings
Anyway
Place
Which
Happy Ending
Tolerate
Thing
Enjoyed
Things
Early
Early Days
I think any life can be interesting, any surroundings can be interesting. I don't think I could have been so brave if I had been living in a town, competing with people on what can be called a generally higher cultural level.
Alice Munro
Life
People
Living
Think
Could
Higher
Generally
Had
Town
Been
Cultural
Surroundings
Brave
Any
Interesting
Level
Competing
I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people's lives present themselves.
Alice Munro
People
Way
Seems
Like
Stories
Themselves
Gaps
Lives
Present
In many ways, I've been writing personal stories all my life.
Alice Munro
Life
Writing
My Life
Ways
All My Life
Been
Personal
Stories
Many
I think, when you are growing up, you have to pull apart from what your mother wants or needs. You've got to go your own way, and that's what I did.
Alice Munro
Needs
You
Mother
Own
Think
Way
Got
Go
Up
Did
Wants
Apart
Your
Growing
Growing Up
Pull
One is lucky to be born in a place where no one is doing it, because then you can say, 'Well, obviously I can write better than everyone else in high school.' You have no idea of the competition.
Alice Munro
You
Competition
Better
School
Else
Everyone
Everyone Else
Say
High
Born
High School
No Idea
Write
No-One
Idea
Obviously
Well
Because
Doing
Than
Where
Place
Then
Lucky
Mothers and daughters generally have fairly complex relationships, and ours was made much more so by Mother's illness. She had Parkinson's disease, which was not diagnosed for a long time... All that made me very self-protective, because for one thing, I didn't want to get trapped.
Alice Munro
Time
Me
Mother
Made
Long
Long Time
Trapped
Relationships
Complex
Ours
One Thing
More
Daughters
Parkinson
Generally
Had
She
Fairly
Because
Diagnosed
Mothers
Very
Get
Disease
Want
Which
Much
Illness
Thing
I think, often, people who run away are people who got into things most enthusiastically, and then they want more. They just demand more of life than what is happening in the moment. Sometimes this is a great mistake, as it's always a good deal different than you expect it.
Alice Munro
Life
Good
Great
You
Mistake
People
Sometimes
Think
Run
Enthusiastically
More
Demand
Most
Deal
Always
Got
Expect
Than
Often
Just
Different
Want
Happening
Then
Moment
Who
Good Deal
Away
Things
Charlotte Bronte was writing about sex. I supposed Jane Austen was, too. Where do you get a hero like Darcy unless you are writing about sex?
Alice Munro
You
Writing
Hero
Sex
Too
Unless
About
Charlotte
Like
Supposed
Austen
Get
Where
Jane
Jane Austen
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