Alice Mattison Quotes

Quotes about:

• I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Thinking, Two

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes indirect style and varying chronology is great, but quite often I've seen it be just something that gets in the way. It turns out when I talk to the writer that she or he, and more often it's a woman, that she's worried.

  Alice Mattison

  Style, Way, Sometimes

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I began to see, again and again, stories that were first confusing and second where the emotional impact was muted because the big scene came before the explanation of what was going on. There was a reverse chronological order as well as a concealment of what exactly was going on. I think often that comes out of the fear of being boring, and sometimes I think it's just an attempt to seem clever.

  Alice Mattison

  Clever, Emotional, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Editors, Differences

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Somehow we have to detach from feeling as though money is a quick and easy standard by which we can gauge how well we're doing.

  Alice Mattison

  Feelings, Gauges, Easy

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• This is true in other fields, too, that a legal aid lawyer gets a whole lot less money than a Hollywood lawyer who handles the estates of celebrities. Maybe the legal aid lawyer is doing something better, though, and maybe they're happier. It's not a completely unheard of idea, but I do think we have to remind ourselves at times to look for satisfaction in other ways.

  Alice Mattison

  Thinking, Ideas, Hollywood

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Writers sometimes are paid a great deal of money, but much more frequently they're not paid or are paid only a little bit.

  Alice Mattison

  Littles, Sometimes, Deals

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.

  Alice Mattison

  Thinking, Get Money, Profession

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• It's hard to say which of us is luckier, the ones who go through long periods when they can't write or the ones who can write pretty easily.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Long, Periods

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Government, Way

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Little children are all writers.

  Alice Mattison

  Children, Littles

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• When I've taught writing to five, six, and seven year olds, it's not very different than talking to an adult writer. They're writers then, and when they get to be young teenagers they're not anymore. You might go and talk to them about writing, and they'll be very self-conscious or will have detached themselves from the group.

  Alice Mattison

  Teenager, Writing, Self

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

  Alice Mattison

  People, Helping, Help Me

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs.

  Alice Mattison

  Thinking, People, Community

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Every once in a while someone says, 'You can't really learn anything, if you're really a writer then you wouldn't need to do it.' But I think what people need is the sense of not being alone. They go to MFA programs to be part of a community of people who care, and then you start caring about your friend who is trying to edit a magazine and your other friend who is stuck in the middle of her poem. There you have all kinds of things to worry about besides your own success.

  Alice Mattison

  Caring, Thinking, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• We have to diversify, we have to find work we can do that helps other people while helping ourselves, work that has to do with writing that isn't necessarily just writing saleable novels or getting huge advances.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Helping Others, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.

  Alice Mattison

  Book, Writing, Long

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I think you have to remember that writing is hard; my first editor used to say that to me.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Thinking, Editors

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• The main thing is to explain to yourself that everybody suffers.

  Alice Mattison

  Suffering

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• There are so many different ways, most of them helpful and legal, to get yourself into a state of mind where writing is possible. It's going to be different for each person.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Mind, Different

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I don't really like to tell people to get out drugs.

  Alice Mattison

  People, Drug

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle they need to jump over.

  Alice Mattison

  Needs, Students, Excited

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older.

  Alice Mattison

  Teaching, Important

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I just like doing it, I like writing.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• You may be somebody who writes best for a small press that doesn't pay very well, but you might have a fascinating and intricate style that might not appeal to as many readers but will be incredibly meaningful to the readers you have. Truly, that's as wonderful if not more wonderful.

  Alice Mattison

  Meaningful, Writing, Style

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

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