Chuck Klosterman Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• No woman will ever satisfy me. I know that now, and I would never try to deny it. But this is actually okay, because I will never satisfy a woman, either. Should I be writing such thoughts? Perhaps not. Perhaps it’s a bad idea. I can definitely foresee a scenario where that first paragraph could come back to haunt me, especially if I somehow became marginally famous.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Ideas, Trying

  Chuck Klosterman (2010). “This Is Emo: An Essay from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

• The biggest hurdle to writing Fargo Rock City was that I couldn't afford a home computer - I had to get a new job so I could buy a computer. It could all change though. In five years, I could be back at some daily newspaper, which wouldn't be so bad.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Jobs, Home, Writing

• Book writing is a little different because, in my case, my editor is a year younger than me and basically has the same sensibility as me.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Years

• I feel sorry for people who have to edit me. Which is why book writing is by far the most enjoyable. Really the only thing it's based on is whether it's good or not. No book editor, in my experience, is getting a manuscript and trying to rewrite it.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Sorry, Book, Writing

• It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good. If you're reviewing a film and you decide "This is a movie I don't like," basically you can take every element of the film and find the obvious flaw, or argue that it seems ridiculous, or like a parody of itself, or that it's not as good as something similar that was done in a previous film. What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Hate, Moving, Writing

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about things that are entertaining to myself.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Fun, Book, Writing

• I feel like a lot of people involved with celebrity journalism have interesting ideas about the people they want to write about going into the interview. Then as soon as they actually sit down with that person, they basically ask the questions they think journalists are supposed to ask, and they start viewing themselves almost as a peer of the subject. Like they're going to become friends. That's why most celebrity journalism is so terrible.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Thinking, Ideas

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• A lot of people involved with celebrity journalism have interesting ideas about the people they want to write about going into the interview. Then as soon as they actually sit down with that person, they basically ask the questions they think journalists are supposed to ask, and they start viewing themselves almost as a peer of the subject. Like they're going to become friends. That's why most celebrity journalism is so terrible.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

• When you're writing for newspapers you have all these parameters. You can't swear, you have to use short paragraphs, all that. If you stay within those parameters, you have lots of freedom because you're writing for the next day.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Next Day, Use

• When I was a film critic, the reason I kind of found it disenchanting was because the things that I wanted to talk about were the ideas in the movie, the theme of it, and contextual elements that weren't necessarily central to the story. But the only thing people really wanted was a plot description and how many stars I'd give it. It didn't matter how much effort you put into writing a piece, they looked at it solely as a consumer's guide toward going or not going to films.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Stars, Writing, Ideas

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• The amount of response I get, in both a negative and a positive context, is completely related to the amount of books I sell, I think. It seems to have nothing to do with what I'm writing, but what degree of success I'm perceived to have.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I write pretty fast, probably faster than most people. But I might think about something for six hours, then write it in 20 minutes. So did I write for six hours and 20 minutes, or just 20 minutes? I used to write absolutely every day, except for days when I had to travel or something.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• Different critics go to different lengths to disagree with that sentiment, but ultimately, they're the person experiencing this art, and whatever judgment or taste they use is internal, and says more about them than about the record they're writing about.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Art, Writing, Different

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• I think people feel very comfortable reviewing the idea of me, as opposed to what I've actually written. Most of the time, when people write about one of my books, they're really just writing about what they think I may or may not represent, as sort of this abstract entity. Is that unfair? Not really. If I put myself in this position where I'm going to kind of weave elements of memoir into almost everything, well, I suppose that's going to happen.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• If somebody asked for the first draft of something I'd written, it'd probably be pretty close to whatever got published. I get enjoyment out of writing, but I get absolutely no enjoyment out of rewriting, so I don't do much of it. The more you work on something, certainly, the better it gets. But there's also a pretty clear law of diminishing returns.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Law, Firsts

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• The thing that has always baffled me about people's perception of my writing is the sense that I'm a very controversial, opinionated, polarizing person. I feel like I write about things that I'm interested in, and I describe why they're interesting to me. I could be negative, I guess. It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, People, Interesting

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• The people who review my books, generally, are kind of youngish culture writers who aspire to write books. When someone writes a book review, they obviously already self-identify as a writer. I mean, they are. They're writers, they're critics, and they're writing about a book about a writer who's a critic. So I think it's really hard for people to distance themselves from what they're criticizing.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Distance, Book, Writing

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The people who review my books, generally, are kind of youngish culture writers who aspire to write books, or write opinion pieces about what they think of Neil Young, or why they quit watching ER or whatever. And because of that, I think there's a lot of people who write about my books with the premise of, "Why this guy? Why not me?"

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• I get enjoyment out of writing, but I get absolutely no enjoyment out of rewriting, so I don't do much of it. The more you work on something, certainly, the better it gets. But there's also a pretty clear law of diminishing returns. It drives me crazy to do readings of my books, because if I read anything I've written in the past, I'd like to almost rewrite everything.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Crazy, Book, Reading

  Source: www.avclub.com

• When someone writes a book review, they obviously already self-identify as a writer. I mean, they are. They're writers, they're critics, and they're writing about a book about a writer who's a critic. So I think it's really hard for people to distance themselves from what they're criticizing.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Distance, Book, Writing

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive. It's really hard to do a literary reproduction of what makes you happy. That's what I try to do. If nothing else, it seems like there's enough people out there telling the world what isn't cool, or what's terrible, or what's depressing. I think there's an element of cynicism in my writing, but I'm an optimistic cynic.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Depressing, Hate, Moving

  Source: www.avclub.com

• And it's kind of my own fault too, in the sense that I've used my own life as a literary device so much. I think people feel very comfortable reviewing the idea of me, as opposed to what I've actually written. I find that most of the time, when people write about one of my books, they're really just writing about what they think I may or may not represent, as sort of this abstract entity. Is that unfair? Not really. If I put myself in this position where I'm going to kind of weave elements of memoir into almost everything, well, I suppose that's going to happen.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

• If I had to make a choice between only writing about sports or only writing about music, I would probably write about music. I'm not sure why that is. There seems to be more to write about with music, just because it's more of a splintered thing. There's more subgenres. With sports, it's more objective in a way.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Sports, Writing, Choices

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The essays are different because ultimately it's things I'm interested in, and I'm really just writing about myself and using those subjects as a prism.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Writing, Different, Prisms

• The amount of response I get, in both a negative and a positive context, is completely related to the amount of books I sell, I think. It seems to have nothing to do with what I'm writing, but what degree of success I'm perceived to have. It's really weird, especially since I spent so much of my life covering people who are famous. It's interesting to actually have it happen to me on some level.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 15, 2006.

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