39 Quotes by Jean Hanff Korelitz

I was 11 years old and horse-obsessed. New York City was an unfortunate place for a girl like me to be growing up.

I say that glorious prose is a fine and laudable thing, but without an enthralling story, it's just so much verbal tapioca. Simply put, the best books have both, and the best writers disparage neither.

Pacing is not the sort of thing you can plan out beforehand, but you're always aware of it as you write, because you need to make constant decisions.

People need a narrative, and if there isn't one on offer, they make one up.

Like many people, I have a fascination with lies and the people who tell them. I wouldn't say I've never told a lie, but I don't think I've ever told one without both assuming I would be found out and feeling absolutely rotten about it.

Most of all, I am struck by an irony central to the lot of a purebred dog: As it attains the hallmarks of its breed, it seems to simultaneously relinquish its basic dogginess, until it is less a dog than a Pomeranian, Collie or Bloodhound.

To me, respect for human life begins with making it more difficult to obtain an inanimate object that is designed to snuff it out.

When you get right down to it, there's something uniquely satisfying in being gripped by a great plot, in begrudging whatever real-world obligations might prevent you from finding out what happens next.

Every so often in life, you encounter a brilliant idea. Usually, at least in my case, it's somebody else's idea.