Anne Tyler Quotes

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Anne Tyler

Profession : Novelist

Birth : October 25, 1941

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest.

Anne Tyler

While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.

Anne Tyler

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

Anne Tyler

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

Anne Tyler

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!

Anne Tyler

None of my own experiences ever finds its way into my work. However, the stages of my life - motherhood, middle age, etc. - often influence my subject matter.

Anne Tyler

In real life I avoid all parties altogether, but on paper I can mingle with the best of them.

Anne Tyler

If I waited till I felt like writing, I'd never write at all.

Anne Tyler

My writing day has grown shorter as I've aged, although it seems to produce the same number of pages.

Anne Tyler

I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?

Anne Tyler

Not until the final draft do I force myself to remember that I'm going to have to think about how it will affect other people.

Anne Tyler

My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy.

Anne Tyler

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

Anne Tyler

I don't want to say I hear voices; well, actually I do hear voices, but I don't think it's supernatural. I think it's just that when characters are given enough texture and backbone, then lo and behold, they stand on their own.

Anne Tyler

I forget a book as soon as I finish writing it, which is not always a good thing.

Anne Tyler

I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless?

Anne Tyler

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

Anne Tyler

Time, in general, has always been a central obsession of mine - what it does to people, how it can constitute a plot all on its own. So naturally, I am interested in old age.

Anne Tyler

It seems to me that good novels celebrate the mystery in ordinary life, and summing it all up in psychological terms strips the mystery away.

Anne Tyler

It's true that it's a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.

Anne Tyler