Karen Thompson Walker Quotes

Quotes about:

• How much sweeter life would be if it all happened in reverse, if, after decades of disappointments, you finally arrived at an age when you had conceded nothing, when everything was possible.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Disappointment, Age, Would Be

  Karen Thompson Walker (2012). “The Age of Miracles”, p.82, Simon and Schuster

  44 Copy quote

• This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could be fixed invisibly with the magic of the contact lens. Crooked teeth were pulled straight with braces. Spotty skin could be chemically cleared. Some girls were turning beautiful. A few boys were growing tall.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Beautiful, Girl, Summer

  Karen Thompson Walker (2014). “The Age of Miracles”, p.43, Simon and Schuster

  15 Copy quote

• I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Beautiful, Writing, College

  16 Copy quote

• It's really hard to get a book published, even a good book, but the better the book is the better chance it has of eventually catching someone's attention.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Book, Attention, Chance

  "The Writing Life: An Interview with Karen Thompson Walker". Hazel & Wren Interview, www.hazelandwren.com. July 24, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• A good story, just like a good sentence, does more than one job at once. That's what literature is: a story that does more than tell a story, a story that manages to reflect in some way the multilayered texture of life itself.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Jobs, Doe, Stories

  4 Copy quote

• Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next?

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Motivation, Inspiration, Focus

  "What fear can teach us". TEDGlobal Talk, www.ted.com. June 2012.

  6 Copy quote

• Who knows how fast a second-guess can travel? Who has ever measured the exact speed of regret?

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Regret, Speed, Know How

  Karen Thompson Walker (2012). “The Age of Miracles: A Novel”, p.40, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• My goal was just to tell the unlikely story in a way that would feel as convincing as possible.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Goal, Stories, Way

  4 Copy quote

• I guess it never is what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophes are always different—unimagined, unprepared for, unknown.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Real, Worry, Different

  Karen Thompson Walker (2014). “The Age of Miracles”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• I kept quiet, but the knowledge gathered like a storm. I could see the future: My father wasn't coming back. And this one fact seemed to point to other facts and others still: Love frays and humans fail, time passes, eras end.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Father, Storm, Eras

  Karen Thompson Walker (2012). “The Age of Miracles: A Novel”, p.219, Random House

  8 Copy quote

• I like to edit my sentences as I write them. I rearrange a sentence many times before moving on to the next one. For me, that editing process feels like a form of play, like a puzzle that needs solving, and it's one of the most satisfying parts of writing.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Moving, Writing, Editing

  4 Copy quote

• To be a good editor or a good writer, I think you really need to be a great reader first.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Thinking, Editors, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• An editor is like a professional reader, and as I became a better reader, I also became a better writer.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Editors, Reader

  "The Writing Life: An Interview with Karen Thompson Walker". Hazel & Wren Interview, www.hazelandwren.com. July 24, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• I really believe that fiction functions best when stories are allowed to develop in an organic way, so I didn't set out to deliver a specific message.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Believe, Fiction, Stories

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes death is proof of life. Sometimes decay points out a certain verve.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Decay, Sometimes, Proof

  Karen Thompson Walker (2014). “The Age of Miracles”, p.203, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Working as an editor was like being a professional reader, and the better I became at reading the better I became at writing.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Reading, Writing, Editors

  4 Copy quote

• I've become a collector of stories about unlikely returns: the sudden reappearance of the long-lost son, the father found, the lovers reunited after forty years. Once in awhile, a letter does fall behind a post office desk and lie there for years before it's finally discovered and delivered to the rightful address. The seemingly brain-dead sometimes wake up and start talking. I'm always on the lookout for proof that what is done can sometimes be undone.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Lying, Father, Fall

  Karen Thompson Walker (2012). “The Age of Miracles”, p.237, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• Sometimes I think I might not have written 'The Age of Miracles' if I hadn't grown up in California, if I hadn't been exposed to its very particular blend of beauty and disaster, of danger and denial.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Thinking, California, Miracle

  6 Copy quote

• If I read a scary story in the newspaper, I find I'm haunted by it.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Scary Stories, Newspapers, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that imagined reader, which is a crucial part of learning to tell stories.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Stories, Imagine, Reader

  4 Copy quote

• In general, I think I'm quick to worry about disasters of all kinds.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Thinking, Worry, Kind

  "The Age of Miracles". Interview with Mark Medley, nationalpost.com. July 13, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm an only child, and I think one of the sweet things about that is that my parents are really interested in every aspect of my life.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Sweet, Children, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• I feel like writing a book there's always a version in your head that's an amazing version, but then you write the version that you can write.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Book, Writing, Feels

  "The Age of Miracles". Interview with Mark Medley, nationalpost.com. July 13, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• I can write all the way through the morning, when my mind is clear, and there are no distractions.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Morning, Writing, Mind

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes the saddest stories take the fewest words.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Stories, Sometimes, Saddest

  Karen Thompson Walker (2014). “The Age of Miracles”, p.234, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

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