81 Quotes by Ann Beattie

When I lived in New York, not only did I have safety locks on the door but I had the music going, keeping the city at a distance, trying to find creative time and peace and so forth.

It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order.

Whatever one intends, the work takes on a life of its own.

Clouds are poems, and the most moving poems linger on the blackboard so long, written in cursive so lovely, they also exist inside our fingertips. We never really erase them at the end of the lesson.

Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.

People forget years and remember moments.

whose work has made a significant contribution to the discipline of the short story as an art form.

What does it matter what my personality is? It's fair enough to talk about the stories, but they're not an autobiographical display.

It was very much a surprise. It's very nice when someone takes notice.