Annie Proulx Quotes

Quotes about:

Heart Reading Writing

You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music.

Annie Proulx

Real, Tragedy, Life Is

Annie Proulx (2008). “The Shipping News: A Novel”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

50 Copy quote
You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

Annie Proulx

Teacher, Reading, Writing

42 Copy quote
What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, 'Write what you know.' It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given. If we write simply about what we know we never grow. We don't develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head-on. We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves. What one should write about is what interests one.

Annie Proulx

Stupid, Writing, Self

19 Copy quote
If you get the landscape right, the characters will step out of it, and they'll be in the right place.

Annie Proulx

Writing, Character, Landscape

1993 Time, 29 Nov.

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We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things.

Annie Proulx

Life, Children, Acceptance

"The Shipping News". Book by Annie Proulx, 1993.

19 Copy quote
I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.

Annie Proulx

Writing, Thinking, Space

"Annie Proulx regrets writing Brokeback Mountain? She needs to let it go" by Ryan Gilbey, www.theguardian.com. December 29, 2014.

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Walking on the land or digging in the fine soil I am intensely aware that time quivers slightly, changes occurring in imperceptible and minute ways, accumulating so subtly that they seem not to exist. Yet the tiny shifts in everything--cell replication, the rain of dust motes, lengthening hair, wind-pushed rocks--press inexorably on and on.

Annie Proulx

Rain, Hair, Rocks

Annie Proulx (2011). “Bird Cloud: A Memoir of Place”, p.190, Simon and Schuster

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Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

Annie Proulx

Teacher, Reading, Writing

19 Copy quote
Anyway, there's something wrong with everybody and it's up to you to know what you can handle.

Annie Proulx

Up To You, Handle, Knows

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We're all strange inside. We learn how to disguise our differences as we grow up.

Annie Proulx

Growing Up, Differences, Strange

Annie Proulx (1996). “The Shipping news”

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What we fear we often rage against.

Annie Proulx

Rage

Annie Proulx (2008). “The Shipping News: A Novel”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

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It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, worldview and thoughts.

Annie Proulx

Views, Feelings, Prejudice

"Close Range". Interview with Matthew Testa, www.cityweekly.net. June 11, 2007.

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Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.

Annie Proulx

Reading, Years, Wide

"Ten rules for writing fiction". www.theguardian.com. February 19, 2010.

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I am influenced by words and the chewiness of language

Annie Proulx

Language

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I wish I knew how to quit you.

Annie Proulx

Movie, Romantic, Real Love

Annie Proulx (2005). “Brokeback Mountain”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

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I find it satisfying and intellectually stimulating to work with the intensity, brevity, balance and word play of the short story.

Annie Proulx

Hair, Play, Balance

"Exclusive PJH Interview: At close range with Annie Proulx". Interview with Matthew Testa, planetjh.com. December 7, 2005.

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And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery.

Annie Proulx

Pain, May, Misery

Annie Proulx (2008). “The Shipping News: A Novel”, p.337, Simon and Schuster

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And I think that's important, to know how the water's gone over the dam before you start to describe it. It helps to have been over the dam yourself.

Annie Proulx

Adversity, Thinking, Water

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... there are four women in every man’s heart. The Maid in the Meadow, the Demon Lover, the Stouthearted Woman, the Tall and Quiet Woman.

Annie Proulx

Heart, Men, Maids

Annie Proulx (2008). “The Shipping News: A Novel”, p.171, Simon and Schuster

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I rarely use the internet for research, as I find the process cumbersome and detestable. The information gained is often untrustworthy and couched in execrable prose. It is unpleasant to sit in front of a twitching screen suffering assault by virus, power outage, sluggish searches, system crashes and the lack of direct human discourse.

Annie Proulx

Atmosphere, Suffering, Hustle

"Close Range: Wyoming Stories". Book by Annie Proulx, www.theguardian.com. May 10, 1999.

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Everybody that went away suffered a broken heart. "I'm coming back some day," they all wrote. But never did. The old life was too small to fit anymore.

Annie Proulx

Heart, Broken, Fit

Annie Proulx (1994). “The Shipping News”, p.313, Simon and Schuster

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In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter.

Annie Proulx

House, Insightful, Story Writers

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Archie was an expert at dividing the affairs of life into men's business and women's business. An empty cupboard and a full plate were the man's business, a full cupboard and an empty plate the concern of the woman.

Annie Proulx

Men, Experts, Affair

Annie Proulx (2008). “The Shipping News: A Novel”, p.320, Simon and Schuster

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Change itself is what fascinates me. I am drawn, as a moth to the flame, by edge situations, by situations of metamorphosis.

Annie Proulx

Flames, Crafts, Metamorphosis

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Was love then like a bag of assorted sweets passed around from which one might choose more than once? Some might sting the tongue, some invoke night perfume. Some had centers as bitter as gall, some blended honey and poison, some were quickly swallowed. And among the common bull's-eyes and peppermints a few rare ones; one or two with deadly needles at the heart, another that brought clam and gentle pleasure. Were his fingers closing on that one?

Annie Proulx

Sweet, Heart, Eye

Annie Proulx (1994). “The Shipping News”, p.315, Simon and Schuster

4 Copy quote

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Born: August 22, 1935
Occupation: Journalist
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