Nell Freudenberger Quotes

• You thought that you were the permanent part of your own experience, the net that held it all together - until you discovered that there were many selves, dissolving into one another so quickly over time that the buildings and the trees and even the pavement turned out to have more substance than you did.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Self, Tree, Together

  Nell Freudenberger (2012). “The Newlyweds”, p.207, Vintage

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• Novels shouldn’t aspire to answer questions, and I wouldn’t presume to offer advice about love or marriage in any case. What’s fascinating to me about marriage as a subject for fiction—a subject that fiction has taken on with gusto since the 19th century—is how unknowable other people’s relationships are. Even the marriages of your parents, your siblings, your closest friends always remain something of a mystery. Only in fiction can you pretend to know people completely.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Sibling, Taken, People

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• It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Writing, Character, Voice

  "The Story of a Strong Woman in a Patriarchal Country: Nell Freudenberger's The Newlyweds". Interview with Meredith Turits, www.glamour.com. June 22, 2012.

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• I can't listen to music when I'm writing. I like music best in a car or on the train.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Writing, Car, Music Is

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• I think the few writers who influenced me most in writing short stories are Alice Munro and Grace Paley. They're very different, and I can't do what they do, but reading them gives me hope that I'll learn something from them.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Reading, Writing, Thinking

  "Off the Page: Nell Freudenberger". The WashingtonPost Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. December 12, 2007.

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• I think that the practice of writing every day was what made me remember that writing doesn't have anything to do with publishing books. It can be totally separate and private - a comforting thought.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Book, Thinking, Stories

  "Off the Page" with Carole Burns, www.washingtonpost.com. December 12, 2007.

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• In America you make your plans and then they happen.

  Nell Freudenberger

  America, Plans, Happens

  Nell Freudenberger (2012). “The Newlyweds”, p.44, Vintage

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• Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a few unusual writers can make something great without that.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Character, Fiction, Unusual

  Interview with Jennifer L. Knox, www.newyorker.com. June 14&21, 2010.

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• I think, in general, it's better not to respond to reviews of your work.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Thinking, Reviews

  "Off the Page" with Carole Burns, www.washingtonpost.com. December 12, 2007.

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• I like it when someone gives me a new book of poetry by a poet I haven't read.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Book, Giving, Poet

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• Research for fiction is a funny thing: you go looking for one piece of information, and find something altogether different.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Funny Things, Different, Fiction

  "The Story of a Strong Woman in a Patriarchal Country: Nell Freudenberger's The Newlyweds". Interview with Meredith Turits, www.glamour.com. June 22, 2012.

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• Alice Munro is a particular kind of short story writer in that she writes long, character-driven short stories.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Writing, Character, Long

  "Off the Page: Nell Freudenberger". The Washington Post Live Q&As, www.washingtonpost.com. December 12, 2007.

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• If somebody says your story is only published because you look nice in the photo, that maybe spurs you on to write.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Nice, Writing, Spurs

  "Nell Freudenberger: ‘The Newlyweds’ Author On Her New Book And The Woman Who Inspired It". Interview with Lori Fradkin, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 1, 2012.

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• I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but thought 'Husbands and Wives' was great.

  Nell Freudenberger

  Husband, Wife, Fans

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