Kim Edwards Quotes

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Kim Edwards

Profession : Author

Birth : May 4, 1958

I grew up in Skaneateles, a small town in New York's Finger Lakes region, where parts of my family have lived for five generations. I can walk the streets there and point out my father's childhood home, the houses my grandfather built, the farm where my great-great-uncle worked after he emigrated from England in the 1880s.

Kim Edwards

I lived for two years in Odawara, a castle town an hour outside of Tokyo, near the sea. It's a beautiful place, and I drew on my experiences there when writing 'The Lake of Dreams.'

Kim Edwards

I hadn't really thought about this until 'The Lake of Dreams,' but I've set all my stories in places that are familiar to me. It frees me up to spend more imaginative time on the characters.

Kim Edwards

'The Lake of Dreams' grew gradually, over many years, elements and ideas accruing until they gained enough critical mass to become a novel.

Kim Edwards

As a writer and as a reader, I really believe in the power of narrative to allow us ways to experience life beyond our own, ways to reflect on things that have happened to us and a chance to engage with the world in ways that transcend time and gender and all sorts of things.

Kim Edwards

Your understanding of a place changes the longer you stay; you discover more, and your own life gets woven into the fabric of the community.

Kim Edwards

Though Lexington is not a small town, it sometimes feels like one, with circles of acquaintance overlapping once, then again; the person you meet by chance at the library or the pool may turn out to be the best friend of your down-the-street neighbor. Maybe that's why people are so friendly here, so willing to be unhurried.

Kim Edwards

My first job was in a nursing home - a terrible place in retrospect. It was in an old house, and the residents were so lonely. People rarely visited them. I only stayed there a couple of months, but it made a strong impression on me.

Kim Edwards

One of my greatest times of inspiration is when I'm traveling or living in a new country - there's a tremendous freedom that comes from being unfettered by your own, familiar culture, and by seeing the world from a different point of view.

Kim Edwards

I love to swim, and I love being near water.

Kim Edwards

It's impossible to control the reception of your work - the only thing you can control is the experience of writing itself, and the work you create.

Kim Edwards

Many Lexington natives believe they live in a special place, one impossible to leave. I'm not so sure about that - or it's more accurate to say I think a more general truth exists beneath it: the place you first call home stays with you always, whether you remain or go.

Kim Edwards

William Trevor is an author I admire; his stories are subtle and powerful, and beautifully written.

Kim Edwards

I've always set my stories in places I know well. It frees me up to spend more imaginative time on the characters if I'm not worrying about the logistics.

Kim Edwards

The way we behave, our views and outlooks really have their sources some place. They come from somewhere. Sometimes we don't even know what they are, and yet they're very powerful in our lives.

Kim Edwards

I don't think we'll ever lose the desire for people to tell stories or to hear stories or to be entrapped in a beautiful story.

Kim Edwards

I find my husband's family history fascinating, as they can trace the family lineage back to ancestors who fought, and died, in the first battle of the Revolution, as well as to many other interesting people.

Kim Edwards

You don't know when you are immersed in a book what the reaction to it will be, but I feel great about 'The Lake of Dreams.'

Kim Edwards

We all have secrets. We've all kept secrets. We've had secrets kept from us, and we know how that feels.

Kim Edwards

After 'Memory Keeper's Daughter,' it took me a few months to shut out the world. I really had to turn off the Internet and sort of cloister myself away from the world again and sink into that psychic space to write again.

Kim Edwards