Alice Mattison Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older.

  Alice Mattison

  Teaching, Important

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I just like doing it, I like writing.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• You may be somebody who writes best for a small press that doesn't pay very well, but you might have a fascinating and intricate style that might not appeal to as many readers but will be incredibly meaningful to the readers you have. Truly, that's as wonderful if not more wonderful.

  Alice Mattison

  Meaningful, Writing, Style

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• We have to diversify, we have to find work we can do that helps other people while helping ourselves, work that has to do with writing that isn't necessarily just writing saleable novels or getting huge advances.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Helping Others, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Every once in a while someone says, 'You can't really learn anything, if you're really a writer then you wouldn't need to do it.' But I think what people need is the sense of not being alone. They go to MFA programs to be part of a community of people who care, and then you start caring about your friend who is trying to edit a magazine and your other friend who is stuck in the middle of her poem. There you have all kinds of things to worry about besides your own success.

  Alice Mattison

  Caring, Thinking, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs.

  Alice Mattison

  Thinking, People, Community

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Government, Way

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Little children are all writers.

  Alice Mattison

  Children, Littles

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I think we need to develop the courage to write from the viewpoint of people who may seem quite different from ourselves, who might have a different sexual orientation or a different race or a different ethnicity.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Thinking, Race

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• It's a scary thing for fiction writers, when you're always writing from the point of view both as and for someone who is different.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Views, Scary

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• We're always inventing, even if we're making someone who's fairly close to ourselves.

  Alice Mattison

  Inventing, Ifs

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• If you have a character stand up and put on her shoes and open the door, in order to do that, you're imagining her shoes and her clothes and her house and her door. The character becomes more real. But once you've done that, you can probably just get it all across with a couple of details.

  Alice Mattison

  Couple, Real, Character

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I've been astonished how often, when I convince a writer to tell a story more straightforwardly and to tell it more simply and directly, it turns out that this author is great and the story is wonderful.

  Alice Mattison

  Stories, Wonderful, Turns

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• The making of fiction takes literally what is suggested by our imagination.

  Alice Mattison

  Imagination, Fiction

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.

  Alice Mattison

  Character, Thinking, Kind

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story.

  Alice Mattison

  Character, Order, Giving

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I think a day in your life on which nothing bad happens may be a wonderful day, but it probably isn't going to be the basis of a story.

  Alice Mattison

  Thinking, Stories, May

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Upset, Sometimes

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Telling someone to be confident in the abstract is not going to make it easier for the unconfident writer to actually get herself or himself to the point of being able to put in the upsetting stuff.

  Alice Mattison

  Upset, Able, Stuff

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• You can't tell a writer they should just be more confident.

  Alice Mattison

  Should

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I think the difference between writing as someone and writing for them is that when you write for someone, you take on a kind of political burden or message, which I don't think we have the right to do.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Thinking, Differences

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I don't think a white person can write accurately and convincingly about what black people experience of oppression.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Thinking, White

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Anyone with an imagination can write about the day-to-day experiences of someone he or she is not.

  Alice Mattison

  Writing, Imagination, Day To Day

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• When I've taught writing to five, six, and seven year olds, it's not very different than talking to an adult writer. They're writers then, and when they get to be young teenagers they're not anymore. You might go and talk to them about writing, and they'll be very self-conscious or will have detached themselves from the group.

  Alice Mattison

  Teenager, Writing, Self

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

  Alice Mattison

  People, Helping, Help Me

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

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