10 Quotes by K. M. Soehnlein

I am always interested in characters who are in these kinds of transitional moments in their lives, when it’s not clear where they’re going to end up. It’s interesting territory for fiction.

Even Jack Kerouac, who famously said, “First thought, best thought,” benefited from editing. His earliest works are the most edited, and they’re the best of his writing.

A knowledge of craft is not the enemy of creativity. You sit down to write and realize, today’s going to be a really unconscious day and I’m going to let it all out. Or, today’s going to be analytical. And some days all mixed up.

Living in the world of the workshop, which I do as a teacher, you have to be articulate about craft. And that often involves imposing analysis on work that’s in a pretty raw state.

It’s a rare memoir that can tell a story that seems brand new, but Nina Here Nor There does it. This one-of-a-kind narrator undertakes a quest that is unmistakably timely. But in its yearning for awareness and connection, this book feels timeless.

I remember being in the same position as Ruby, when I no longer believed in God as I was raised to believe. But I still am a believer – it’s a personality trait, to be someone who can believe. But then what do you believe in?

I believe in art, and more fundamentally the freedom to express one’s self creatively. People don’t know yet what they’ll ultimately believe in or how they’ll organize their lives. They’re kind of in limbo.

But revision is a creative act, not merely an analytical imposition of rules of style on a more creative first draft. That’s a myth – that the first draft is more creative and everything after that is ruining creativity.

It’s about transitioning from adolescence, when you live together with parents and see each other every day, to the era when you don’t live together and start to grow apart and have to figure out how you’re going to have an adult relationship.