172 Quotes by Sheila Heti

I don't think about the reader when I'm writing, but I do when I'm editing, of course. For instance, I self-consciously didn't want to do anything to increase the divide between mothers and nonmothers - I think that divide is so horrible and destructive and unnecessary.

'The Chairs are Where the People Go' was told to me by my friend Misha Glouberman; I typed as he talked. In 'How Should a Person Be?' the transcribed dialogues between me and my friends help form the structure of the book.

People don't know who I am from my clothes, and they don't need to.

There's so much anxiety about being understood - and being understood through what you wear.

For me, a memoir is supposed to be understood as a representation of your life, whereas a novel is self-consciously symbolic.

In my experience, women who are taken seriously take themselves seriously. It's not what you wear.

I believe there's a platonic ideal for every book that is written, like there's the perfect version of the book somewhere in the ether, and my job is to find what that book is through my editing.

I don't wear shoes that are going to give me any pain. I just cannot do that.

Renown is something people have always wanted, but maybe what's modern is that it's considered a virtue, this desire, rather than a vice. I might be wrong about this.