Ann Patchett Quotes
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.
Quotes to Explore
-
It's interesting that one of the definitions of the word 'human' is 'sympathetic.' More and more people are beginning to show that they understand why that is important.
-
Fitzgerald was a modernist.
-
Whatever God or whatever higher power you believe in, they brought us to this earth in a perfect way, and you have to learn to love yourself. Otherwise, it's an exhausting way to be.
-
I think most families have a few secrets or some strange aspect to their history. We're all fascinated by family dynamics, but I'd much rather sit in an audience and watch someone else's problems!
-
Once I got married, I started working from an office. I found that having somewhere to go that isn't my house is mentally helpful: 'This is the place where I answer email and write blog posts,' and 'over there is the place where I do the dishes.'
-
My hearing has suffered seriously; just now I am obliged to have the assistance of an ear trumpet. Think of that, my beauty! - There 's a state for your old Lover to be in! - No more tender whisperings! Imagine sweet confessions to be made through an ear trumpet!
-
If you're a thinking person, the liver is interesting, but nothing is more intriguing than the brain.
-
The politics of the Cape Town Metro, which allows an executive Mayoral committee to make secret decisions which affect you, behind closed doors, is wrong!
-
Keep your energy levels high by adding bananas and egg whites to your diet.
-
What you want to do, particularly when you're dealing with a professional sports league and franchises and people's passionate commitment to the game and for the team they root for is, it has to be sustainable.
-
I have a great office.
-
The Wood was about young people and the other one is more of a grown up movie.
-
Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
-
I'll put the Packers' best players on defense. It's best for a team and good for its morale.
-
The most disturbing thing, I think, with people that do very morally devious things more and more often is to see that they completely feel that they had no choice in the matter.
-
Take your average couscous salad, and it's almost always a sloppy mush, no matter how much attention has gone into getting flavours in there.
-
You realize when you're pregnant how lucky you are to have access to medical care.
-
Online hierarchies are inherently dynamic. The moment someone stops adding value to the community, his influence starts to wane.
-
A lot of my male vocal influences are British - people like David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.
-
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.
-
I don't care why they love me, as long as they love me. I think people respect me because they feel like - I'm kind of like Christmas. I come back every year. You can't get rid of me. I just keep coming back.
-
So in the sense that we were all dealing with that freer approach, yes, it was certainly one of the first contacts, perhaps the first contact, when Peter came that summer. So it's a very pivotal moment that is documented there.
-
I don't answer the phone or do my email; I don't do anything until I've got the day's writing done. I have a word count for every day: 500 for fiction, 1,000 for non-fiction, and journalism is 1,500. That's a level I can sustain.
-
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.
