Jess Walter Quotes

Quotes about:

• I think so, too. I know I felt that way. For years. It was as if I was a character in a movie and the real action was about to start at any minute. But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.

  Jess Walter

  Life, Real, Character

  Jess Walter (2013). “Beautiful Ruins”, p.55, Penguin UK

  46 Copy quote

• Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.

  Jess Walter

  Space, Desire, Want

  7 Copy quote

• Who isn't crazy sometimes? Who hasn't driven around a block hoping a certain person will come out; who hasn't haunted a certain coffee shop, or stared obsessively at an old picture; who hasn't toiled over every word in a letter, taken four hours to write a two-sentence email, watched the phone praying it will ring; who doesn't lay awake at night sick with the image of her sleeping with someone else?

  Jess Walter

  Block, Crazy, Coffee

  14 Copy quote

• I realized the structure in a collection is how they're put together. Structuring the collection became the art of it for me. Because the stories had all been written.

  Jess Walter

  Art, Together, Stories

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• His life was two lives now: the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about.

  Jess Walter

  Life, Two, Forever

  6 Copy quote

• At peace? Who but the insane would ever be at peace? What person who has enjoyed life could possibly think one is enough? Who could live even a day and not feel the sweet ache of regret?

  Jess Walter

  Sweet, Regret, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• There are only two good outcomes for a quest like this, the hope of the serendipitous savant — sail for Asia and stumble on America — and the hope of scarecrows and tin men: that you find out you had the thing you sought all along.

  Jess Walter

  Men, Two, America

  11 Copy quote

• I don't know a family that isn't touched by some sort of addiction.

  Jess Walter

  Addiction, Knows, Touched

  Source: therumpus.net

  5 Copy quote

• Stories are people. I'm a story, you're a story ... your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we're lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we're less alone.

  Jess Walter

  Father, People, Lucky

  "Beautiful Ruins: A Novel". Book by Jess Walter, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” “That’s only three.” Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.

  Jess Walter

  Disappointment, Wine, Greatness

  Jess Walter (2013). “Beautiful Ruins”, p.62, Penguin UK

  4 Copy quote

• He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.

  Jess Walter

  People, Boredom, Contentment

  Jess Walter (2012). “Beautiful Ruins: A Novel”, p.9, Harper Collins

  5 Copy quote

• The first fiction I ever wrote was short stories. I was writing short stories in my late teens and early twenties, and I think it's how you teach yourself to write.

  Jess Walter

  Writing, Thinking, Twenties

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• He wished he could reassure his mother: a man wants many things in life, but when one of them is also the right thing, he would be a fool not to choose it.

  Jess Walter

  Mother, Men, Things In Life

  4 Copy quote

• Then she smiled, and in that instant, if such a thing were possible, Pasquale fell in love, and he would remain in love for the rest of his life--not so much with the woman, whom he didn't even know, but with the moment.

  Jess Walter

  Moments, Instant, Knows

  Jess Walter (2013). “Beautiful Ruins”, p.16, Penguin UK

  4 Copy quote

• If a police officer arrests a mime, does he need to tell him he has the right to remain silent.

  Jess Walter

  Police, Doe, Needs

  17 Copy quote

• You take something from your past that you're somewhat ashamed about and you write about it from another character's point of view.

  Jess Walter

  Writing, Character, Past

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• He thought it might be the most intimate thing possible, to fall asleep next to someone in the afternoon.

  Jess Walter

  Fall, Afternoon, Might

  4 Copy quote

• All we have is the story we tell.

  Jess Walter

  Stories

  4 Copy quote

• And even if they don't find what they're looking for, isn't it enough to be out walking together in the sunlight?

  Jess Walter

  Together, Enough, Sunlight

  5 Copy quote

• I've been a dad since I was nineteen, so I think a lot about fatherhood and the power of that sacrifice in your life.

  Jess Walter

  Dad, Sacrifice, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• What business does memory have with time?

  Jess Walter

  Memories, Doe

  4 Copy quote

• Maybe every couple lived in the gaps between conversations, unable to say the important things for fear they had already been said, or couldn't be said; maybe every relationship started over every time two people came together.

  Jess Walter

  Couple, Two, People

  4 Copy quote

• The first seven years that I wrote fiction, I sent out stories and a novel and made a total of $25.

  Jess Walter

  Years, Fiction, Stories

  4 Copy quote

• All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character-what we believe-none of it is real; it's all part of the story we tell. But here's the thing: it's our goddamned story!

  Jess Walter

  Life, Motivation, Real

  Jess Walter (2013). “Beautiful Ruins”, p.237, Penguin UK

  4 Copy quote

• Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief.

  Jess Walter

  Memories, Eye, Finding Yourself

  4 Copy quote

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