Tom Perrotta Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I did a lot of reading of the Bible and became fascinated with the idea of the Rapture. It's pretty wild. I hadn't heard of it until I was in college.

  Tom Perrotta

  Reading, College, Ideas

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• I know very few writers who outline fully before they start. It just doesn't seem possible to do, because so many things don't come out until you're absolutely knee-deep in the world.

  Tom Perrotta

  World

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• My mythic version of America is very much about parents and children, and in my experience, the suburban setting is where that particular drama plays out. Which isn't to say that there aren't parents and children in cities or on farms. I just don't know them.

  Tom Perrotta

  Children, Drama, Play

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• I think I'm fascinated by the power of religion in our culture. Like a lot of secular, liberal people, I ignored it for a long time. Lately, of course, just from a political perspective, it's impossible to ignore.

  Tom Perrotta

  Thinking, People, Perspective

  "Tom Perrotta serves 'Leftovers' with grief, empathy". Interview with Brian Braiker, www.usatoday.com. September 8, 2011.

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• I was writing very early, like I was involved in our high school literary magazine, which was called 'Pariah.' The football team was the Bears, and the literary magazine was 'Pariah.' It was great. It was definitely a real sub-culture. But I wrote stories for them.

  Tom Perrotta

  Football, Real, Team

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• I'm used to adapting my novels for feature film - it can be challenging to cut and compress three or four hundred pages into two hours of dramatic action.

  Tom Perrotta

  Cutting, Two, Challenges

  ""The Exchange: Tom Perrotta" by Sarah Larson". www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2011.

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• I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel.

  Tom Perrotta

  Writing, People, Perfect

  "The Exchange: Tom Perrotta" by Sarah Larson, www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2011.

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• I was also known as Frodo because I was an early adopter of 'The Lord of the Rings.

  Tom Perrotta

  Frodo, Lord, Rings

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• Apparently even the most awful tragedies, and the people they'd ruined, got a little stale after a while.

  Tom Perrotta

  People, Tragedy, Littles

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

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• I find that even small changes sometimes jog you out of a mental rut.

  Tom Perrotta

  Small Changes, Ruts, Sometimes

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• Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us.

  Tom Perrotta

  Suffering, Lasts, Loved Ones

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• As for writing about temptation, there's no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama.

  Tom Perrotta

  Drama, Writing, Temptation

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• I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.

  Tom Perrotta

  Sympathy, Honesty, Eye

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• I write about kids growing up, I write a lot about schools and parents, and all of my experiences with those things have been suburban experiences.

  Tom Perrotta

  Growing Up, Writing, School

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• Jill felt an emptiness open inside of her as she lifted her arm, a sense that something vital was being subtracted from her life. It was always like that when somebody you cared about went away, even when you knew it was inevitable, and it probably wasn't your fault.

  Tom Perrotta

  Arms, Faults, Emptiness

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

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• Because, really, what was worse than lying wide-awake in the dark, watching your life drip away, one irreplaceable minute after another?

  Tom Perrotta

  Lying, Dark, Minutes

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• Back then, when everybody thought the world would last forever, nobody had time for anything.

  Tom Perrotta

  Forever, World, Lasts

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

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• The interesting part about the writing process is that you can never see all the way to the end, not if something is happening over the course of a year and a half, or two years.

  Tom Perrotta

  Writing, Years, Two

  Interview with Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. November 7, 2007.

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• Safe from the Neighbors is a novel of unusual richness and depth, one that's as wise about the small shocks within a marriage as it is about the troubled history of Mississippi. Steve Yarbrough is a formidably talented novelist, shuttling between the past and present with a grace that feels effortless.

  Tom Perrotta

  Wise, Past, Grace

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• A screenwriter heard me read from my novel 'The Wishbones' when it was still in progress and mentioned me to some producers in Hollywood. They called, and I told them I had a novel in my drawer about a high school election that goes haywire. They asked to take a look, and my life changed pretty dramatically as a result.

  Tom Perrotta

  Life Changing, School, Progress

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• I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years.

  Tom Perrotta

  Past, Years, Novelists

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• She told her therapist it reminded her of coming home the summer after her freshman year at Rutgers, stepping back into the warm bath of family and friends, loving it for a week or two, and then feeling trapped, dying to return to school, missing her roommates and her cute new boyfriend, the classes and the parties and the giggly talks before bed, understanding for the first time that that was her real life now, that this, despite everything she'd ever loved about it, was finished for good.

  Tom Perrotta

  Cute, Summer, Real

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• He'd never had to make the adjustments and compromises other people accepted early in their romantic careers; never had a chance to learn the lesson that Sarah taught him everyday--that beauty was only a part of it, and not even the most important part, that there were transactions between people that occurred on some mysterious level beneath the skin, or maybe even beyond the body.

  Tom Perrotta

  Careers, People, Everyday

  Tom Perrotta (2007). “Little Children: A Novel”, p.128, St. Martin's Press

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• If anything, he seemed a little lonely, all too ready to open his heart at the slightest sign of interst.

  Tom Perrotta

  Lonely, Heart, Littles

  Tom Perrotta (2007). “Little Children: A Novel”, p.34, Macmillan

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• I really wanted to be a musician, but it turned out I had no sense of time.

  Tom Perrotta

  Musician, Wanted

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