Latest A.M. Homes Quotes from Interviews

• You really can't write well if you're thinking about what the reviewers might say.

  A.M. Homes

  Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The struggle is how to write optimistically when the world we're living in is not inherently optimistic. I love the idea of the family from the most Norman Rockwell version to Norman Bates. Without family, we have very little - it is the most basic social structure. So yes I suppose I wanted to write a hopeful book about the evolution of the family.

  A.M. Homes

  Struggle, Book, Writing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I'm very interested in compassion - compassion for oneself and others. I write about very complicated characters and experiences and try to do it without judging the character or the action.

  A.M. Homes

  Writing, Character, Compassion

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I thought a lot about Nixon's personal history and the changes in America during his lifetime and tried to craft stories, which I thought reflected some of his personal history but also the backdrop of a changing America. Nixon grew up in a strict Quaker family. The idea of the American Dream, of hard work and not much fun, was ingrained in Nixon as a child, but curiously so was a love of music. Nixon himself was a pretty good piano player. So it's the contradictions that interest me, as I think we all have them.

  A.M. Homes

  Dream, Children, Fun

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I'd say our ability to supersize emotions are American-made special effects. In European countries, people mostly stay close to home and whatever rage there is simmers under the surface - it's what made the plays of Shakespeare and Harold Pinter so good.

  A.M. Homes

  Country, Home, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I really don't watch enough TV to know about the impact. In my experience as a TV writer, I would say is the exact opposite - it's very constricted, all having to conform to a form. My sense of fiction writing is not to think about rules but to be driven by the characters and their stories. I often ask myself what's at risk here, who needs what, and how are they going to get it. There has to be a reason for the reader to stop living their own life and start reading your book.

  A.M. Homes

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• What draws me to family... if I were a psychiatrist, I'd say an enormous amount of unresolved personal material. If I were an anthropologist, I'd say families are at the root of social structures - they shape our identity, our belief systems - and so I find them fascinating. Also, I love the idea that families have narratives that are essentially the family story that is passed along generation to generation - and the rifts start when people question the story.

  A.M. Homes

  People, Identity, Belief

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com