Dean Bakopoulos Quotes

United States, Writer
July 6, 1975

Dean Bakopoulos is an American writer, born in Dearborn Heights, Michigan in 1975. He is a two-time National Endowment for the Arts fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and writer-in-residence at Grinnell College. Bakopoulos has a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.

I write in an old-school paneled study in the middle of a large farmhouse in rural Iowa. I have pine floors, a big cherry desk, and a small window. The room is cluttered with papers and books and gifts from friends.

Dean Bakopoulos
- School
- Friends
- Small
Once I have a book in my head, I write progressive drafts fast and obsessively and have trouble sleeping.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Book

In all honesty, my favorite place to write is an anonymous, cheap hotel in a city or town where nobody knows me, the wireless service is spotty, and the adjoining gas station has coffee, beer and junk food.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Food
- City
- Service
I write while listening to music, mostly because the world beyond my headphones is too chaotic.

Dean Bakopoulos
- World
- Music
- Listening
In real life, I go to the North Shore with my kids for two weeks each summer, and it's a magical place for us. I feel restored there and connected to the ancient, pre - human world in a way that no place else on Earth does for me.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Life
- World
- Real
A good TV writer needs all the same tricks a good novelist has.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Good
People are used to juggling multiple jobs and multiple responsibilities and multiple things on the home front, and sometimes you get a day off to read, and you just want a book that feels complete and that you can get through it on a rainy day on the couch.

Dean Bakopoulos
- People
- Home
- Book
The writer's job is to let the books speak for themselves eventually.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Job

Music - which I could never listen to while writing before I had children - became essential to my process.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Music
- Writing
- Children
What a thrill it is to have my writing recognized by an institution as admirable and vital as the National Endowment for the Arts.

Dean Bakopoulos
- Writing