Tom Perrotta Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us.

  Tom Perrotta

  Suffering, Lasts, Loved Ones

  7 Copy quote

• Because, really, what was worse than lying wide-awake in the dark, watching your life drip away, one irreplaceable minute after another?

  Tom Perrotta

  Lying, Dark, Minutes

  4 Copy quote

• Jill felt an emptiness open inside of her as she lifted her arm, a sense that something vital was being subtracted from her life. It was always like that when somebody you cared about went away, even when you knew it was inevitable, and it probably wasn't your fault.

  Tom Perrotta

  Arms, Faults, Emptiness

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I know very few writers who outline fully before they start. It just doesn't seem possible to do, because so many things don't come out until you're absolutely knee-deep in the world.

  Tom Perrotta

  World

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I think I was always writing books that had very clear scenic structures. I do tend to write in scenes. I do tend to have a fair amount of dialogue. And I do tend to use stories that don't sprawl all over the place, that have a very sharp focus in terms of how they unfold in time.

  Tom Perrotta

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I did a lot of reading of the Bible and became fascinated with the idea of the Rapture. It's pretty wild. I hadn't heard of it until I was in college.

  Tom Perrotta

  Reading, College, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• The interesting part about the writing process is that you can never see all the way to the end, not if something is happening over the course of a year and a half, or two years.

  Tom Perrotta

  Writing, Years, Two

  Interview with Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. November 7, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

• I think I'm fascinated by the power of religion in our culture. Like a lot of secular, liberal people, I ignored it for a long time. Lately, of course, just from a political perspective, it's impossible to ignore.

  Tom Perrotta

  Thinking, People, Perspective

  "Tom Perrotta serves 'Leftovers' with grief, empathy". Interview with Brian Braiker, www.usatoday.com. September 8, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I was writing very early, like I was involved in our high school literary magazine, which was called 'Pariah.' The football team was the Bears, and the literary magazine was 'Pariah.' It was great. It was definitely a real sub-culture. But I wrote stories for them.

  Tom Perrotta

  Football, Real, Team

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel.

  Tom Perrotta

  Writing, People, Perfect

  "The Exchange: Tom Perrotta" by Sarah Larson, www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm used to adapting my novels for feature film - it can be challenging to cut and compress three or four hundred pages into two hours of dramatic action.

  Tom Perrotta

  Cutting, Two, Challenges

  ""The Exchange: Tom Perrotta" by Sarah Larson". www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• My mythic version of America is very much about parents and children, and in my experience, the suburban setting is where that particular drama plays out. Which isn't to say that there aren't parents and children in cities or on farms. I just don't know them.

  Tom Perrotta

  Children, Drama, Play

  4 Copy quote

• When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.

  Tom Perrotta

  Teacher, Writing, Culture

  "The Exchange: Tom Perrotta" by Sarah Larson, www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• My wife and I left New York when she got pregnant - we just thought it would be really hard to stay in the city.

  Tom Perrotta

  New York, Cities, Wife

  4 Copy quote

• I was also known as Frodo because I was an early adopter of 'The Lord of the Rings.

  Tom Perrotta

  Frodo, Lord, Rings

  4 Copy quote

• I've been a little bit obsessed with religion, without being a religious person, for about a decade.

  Tom Perrotta

  Religious, Littles, Obsessed

  4 Copy quote

• It just so happened that for most of my life I've lived in the suburbs.

  Tom Perrotta

  Happened, Suburbs

  4 Copy quote

• I write about kids growing up, I write a lot about schools and parents, and all of my experiences with those things have been suburban experiences.

  Tom Perrotta

  Growing Up, Writing, School

  4 Copy quote

• He'd never had to make the adjustments and compromises other people accepted early in their romantic careers; never had a chance to learn the lesson that Sarah taught him everyday--that beauty was only a part of it, and not even the most important part, that there were transactions between people that occurred on some mysterious level beneath the skin, or maybe even beyond the body.

  Tom Perrotta

  Careers, People, Everyday

  Tom Perrotta (2007). “Little Children: A Novel”, p.128, St. Martin's Press

  4 Copy quote

• If anything, he seemed a little lonely, all too ready to open his heart at the slightest sign of interst.

  Tom Perrotta

  Lonely, Heart, Littles

  Tom Perrotta (2007). “Little Children: A Novel”, p.34, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• There's not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it.

  Tom Perrotta

  Pain, Mind, Body

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• Meg was going to have to learn for herself what Laurie had figured out over the summer - that it was better to leave well enough alone, to avoid unnecessary encounters with the people you'd left behind, to not keep poking at that sore tooth with the tip of your tongue. Not because you didn't love them anymore, but because you did, and because that love was useless now, just another dull ache in your phantom limb.

  Tom Perrotta

  Summer, People, Encounters

  "The Leftovers". Book by Tom Perrotta, August 30, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• She told her therapist it reminded her of coming home the summer after her freshman year at Rutgers, stepping back into the warm bath of family and friends, loving it for a week or two, and then feeling trapped, dying to return to school, missing her roommates and her cute new boyfriend, the classes and the parties and the giggly talks before bed, understanding for the first time that that was her real life now, that this, despite everything she'd ever loved about it, was finished for good.

  Tom Perrotta

  Cute, Summer, Real

  4 Copy quote

• I no longer believe that just about everything is funny, if viewed from the proper angle.

  Tom Perrotta

  Believe, Angle, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years.

  Tom Perrotta

  Past, Years, Novelists

  4 Copy quote

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