Alice McDermott Quotes
I love a well-plotted story. But I'm just not that kind of writer, and it's not necessarily by choice. When I manipulate plot, I feel I lose authenticity.

Quotes to Explore
-
I think that a lot of women that know they're going to be part of history somehow decide to have a character to be remembered by.
-
I had a sense of what leadership meant and what it could do for you. So am I surprised that I am sitting up here on the 62nd floor of Rockefeller Plaza? No.
-
Dell fills its computers with crapware, collecting fees from McAfee and other vendors to pre-install 'trial' versions.
-
I look more to the future. That's where my head is at.
-
If my life was a song the title would be 'Naima'.
-
It began to dawn on me that perhaps my country needed me more at home than overseas.
-
My fans are pretty spot-on with their gifts. This girl that was super into baking had made this entire batch of cookies - there were one with a dandelion on it, one with a trailer, and some had my face.
-
I would be ecstatic if the very first writer to step foot in a Storyknife cabin was an Alaska Native woman writer.
-
An important part of any focusing regimen is to set aside time at the end of the day - just before going to sleep - to acknowledge your successes, review your goals, focus on your successful future, and make specific plans for what you want to accomplish the next day.
-
I think Hitchcock had a thing about hills: think of the house on the hill in 'Psycho.' Then, in 'Vertigo,' Scottie is forever traversing the city, going downhill all the time as he goes deeper and deeper into himself. It's as if Hitchcock is using San Francisco as a psychological map.
-
I realized that I've lived half my life already, and it's time to believe in - and stand up for - myself.
-
Three score and, and ten has always been something that I never thought I'd make. So when I made it, I wanted to celebrate it and I did.
-
Perfection does not exist - only God is perfect.
-
It's not fair to say that people who work with their head or with their hands ought to pay taxes, but people who earn their living with capital ought not to.
-
I'm a father to four kids, so it bothers me that even though our children think big naturally, our society systematically trains them out of thinking that way.
-
I took my first creative writing class when I was 24, then went onto to get a graduate degree in poetry. I've sort of never looked back from there.
-
The interview is not over when the meeting is over. Never forget that.
-
I think if we get freedom for women, then they are probably going to do a lot of things that I wish they wouldn't do. But it seems to me that isn't our business to say what they should do with it. It is our business to see that they get it.
-
I had a father who was active, present. There are people out there that never knew their fathers, didn't have their father's support. If I were to complain, that would be real sad. How dare I?
-
Changing horses doesn't mean the ride'll get any better!
-
Giving back has definitely kept me grounded. Stepping outside of yourself to serve a group or community of people who are in need in some facet has a way of doing that. I don't ever want to grow to a place where giving back becomes a foreign concept.
-
Theatrically seeing a movie with a group of people and having a collective experience has an authenticity that you can't get with your big screen television.
-
I like to say that the one thing that all people who succeed in changing the world have in common is that they at least tried.
-
I love a well-plotted story. But I'm just not that kind of writer, and it's not necessarily by choice. When I manipulate plot, I feel I lose authenticity.