39 Quotes by Daniel Mallory Ortberg


  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    With a few exceptions, birds are not to be trusted; it is not normal to have such soft, vulnerable bodies bookended with slashing beaks and razor-sharp claws. It is as unnatural as an armed marshmallow.

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  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    Did you know that, pound for pound, the moose is the leanest ruminant on Earth? It's true. Moose are very in tune with their natural surroundings.

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  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    Ghost! I miss him! Is that weird? I miss him even though I invented him. I feel a lot of tenderness toward him. I don't write a lot of stuff that is sad or that is tender and affectionate, so that has a very special place in my heart.

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  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    I think female solitude is a mental condition as well as a physical state. You can be married and a spinster. I think spinster is an identity every woman can claim, if she will... I feel like a lot of women, or a lot of feminists, joke about taking to the sea or living alone in a cottage as this kind of fun freedom.

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  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    When I think of Emily Dickinson, there's not one particular poem of hers that jumps out, but I do have a very vivid image of an ill woman with giant eyes who wants to write about the sun exploding.

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  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    A lot of my creative energy is spent coming up with a concept that, once I get it, I feel like it writes itself.

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  • Author Daniel Mallory Ortberg
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    I love 'Jane Eyre,' and I love the Bronte sisters. I actually didn't read any of them until I was in college, so I don't have quite the same connection with them that I think a lot of women do.

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