Latest Christopher Bollen Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I'm really much better at asking questions than answering them, since asking questions is like a constant deflection of oneself.

  Christopher Bollen

  Oneself

  Source: therumpus.net

• I like to be alone, I mean, I really love to be alone more than anything else, and I don't really like to talk about myself to death, and I don't like to share too much, and I don't really have dreams of extreme fame or even extreme respect.

  Christopher Bollen

  Dream, Mean, Fame

  Source: therumpus.net

• I don't think secrets are a bad thing. I think there's this idea that everything needs to be transparent in order for it to be free.

  Christopher Bollen

  Thinking, Secret

  Source: therumpus.net

• When you create a fence, you keep people out, but you also limit your mobility.

  Christopher Bollen

  People, Fence

  Source: therumpus.net

• It's just as political, what you do in the bedroom is just as political as what you do in public.

  Christopher Bollen

  Political, Bedroom

  Source: therumpus.net

• Secrets are never secure because they are always at risk of being found out.

  Christopher Bollen

  Risk, Secret

  Source: therumpus.net

• It's really hard to write about art in general. But it's exceptionally hard to fictionalize art and make work that isn't a parody, or is something that could withstand critique and exist in the art world as a valuable object, or a true piece.

  Christopher Bollen

  Art, Writing, World

  Source: therumpus.net

• There are certain moments where artwork might seem like it's part of someone's career - if you really know the art world - , but I did my best to prevent that overlap.

  Christopher Bollen

  Art, World, Moments

  Source: therumpus.net

• If you've been in the art world for more than eight years, you realize another generation is making the exact same work as the previous generation - but treating it like it's never been done before. It becomes very cyclical very quickly.

  Christopher Bollen

  Art, Done, World

  Source: therumpus.net

• Safety, reputation, their lives, their friends, and their world. Writers typically try to avoid that because it's not expedient.

  Christopher Bollen

  Safety, Trying, World

  Source: therumpus.net

• There seem to be two ways of generating interest from the reader: withholding information or by telling the reader on the first page exactly what's going to happen.

  Christopher Bollen

  Interest

  Source: therumpus.net

• People aren't doing whodunits anymore.

  Christopher Bollen

  People

  Source: therumpus.net

• It's hard for me to figure out where I want to be. But it's definitely in New York. I feel like New York throws different challenges at you and you can be more creative.

  Christopher Bollen

  Creative, Challenges, Different

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It's always fun to welcome new people into your life. When dating anyone or becoming friends with anyone who has a different profession, a different life, it opens doors. All my friends here do such different creative things. It's so awesome.

  Christopher Bollen

  Fun, People, Dating

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• For me, cultivation of my own style really started by looking at people. There are just some really beautiful people in the world. When you're walking down the street, or you're at a restaurant, someone catches your eye because they have their own look. It goes way beyond what they're wearing-into their mannerisms, the way they smile, or just the way they hold themselves.

  Christopher Bollen

  Beautiful, Eye, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I definitely don't take any of intrusions in my private life personally. You learn how to have a sense of humor pretty quickly. I honestly don't keep up on it unless it's something that would hurt someone else. I can take care of myself, that's not the problem. But it's just not fair to bring anyone else into the picture.

  Christopher Bollen

  Hurt, Care, Sense Of Humor

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I like change. I've never really had much consistency in my life, you know, from everyday work to my living situation to whether or not I'm going to be in L.A. The one constant thing in my life is my friends and family, which is all I need

  Christopher Bollen

  Consistency, Everyday, Family And Friends

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• You sit at a fashion show in another country and you watch all of these paparazzi swarm around a celebrity, only they're a local celebrity, maybe a soap opera star, so you don't have any idea who they are, you just know they're famous to a bunch of stunned Italians. It's weird, because when you can't identify who a celebrity is, they can just look like overslicked stand-ins. That might sound awful, but what I mean is, when you think about most actresses, even in Hollywood, they really aren't that fascinating or glamorous in their own right once you strip away the flashbulbs.

  Christopher Bollen

  Country, Fashion, Mean

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I really believe there is something in the nature of a democracy that naturally leads people to distrust the government, to assume because a democracy is built by people just like themselves that there must be secret plots and cover-ups and wizards behind the scenes running the machine.

  Christopher Bollen

  Running, Believe, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The Greeks really believed in history. They believed that the past had consequences and that you might be punished for the sins of your father. America, and particularly New York, runs on the idea that history doesn't matter. There is no history. There is only the never-ending present. You don't even have your family because you moved here to get away from them, so even that idea of personal history has been cut at the knees.

  Christopher Bollen

  Running, Father, Cutting

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I like the idea of the book being wiser than the person who wrote it. None of the novels I've written are direct transcriptions of me blathering over dinner with a glass of wine in my hand. I don't hold any illusion of those conversations being of particular value. The books, though, are - I hope - bigger than my opinions, investigations that go beyond my own intellect or wit.

  Christopher Bollen

  Book, Wine, Opinion

  Source: www.salon.com

• Someone asked me when it was that I felt confident enough in my writing that I could rely on it as a career. The truth is, I never have. I'm always on the hunt for second, third, or fourth careers. Private detective and cinematographer were previous career choices, but now that I'm older I think I'd be a good portrait painter, rug merchant, or florist.

  Christopher Bollen

  Writing, Thinking, Choices

  Source: www.salon.com

• We've come under the influence of television, where in all honesty we can follow a show that could just get cancelled midway through the season and the entire plotline never resolves itself.

  Christopher Bollen

  Honesty, Television, Influence

  "The Brilliant Complications of Heidi Julavits". Interview with Christopher Bollen, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 28, 2012.

• I'm ultimately not so much of a professor as a progresser. And I'm ready to move away from what I consider to be this weird mid-century dream that I feel pulls us as a country, and us as a culture, backward.

  Christopher Bollen

  Dream, Country, Moving

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I was never afraid on stage. That's where I was the least afraid. I could just do what I do and I had the amplification and the lights.

  Christopher Bollen

  Light, Amplification, Stage

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com