68 Quotes by William Landay

I don't ever write with a particular audience in mind. I just write books that please me.

When I was 30 or so - by that time I had become an assistant D.A. - I decided I would try to write a novel. To be clear: I did not decide to become a novelist. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that I could actually earn a living as a professional novelist.

The rest-the vast majority, tens of thousands of days-are unremarkable, repetitive, even monotonous. We glide through them then instantly forget them. We tend not to think about this arithmetic when we look back on our lives. We remember the handful of Big Days and throw away the rest. We organize our long, shapeless lives into tidy little stories...But our lives are mostly made up of junk, of ordinary, forgettable days, and 'The End' is never the end.

There is no absolute beginning to any story, after all. There is only the moment you begin watching.

Predisposition is not predestination.

the act does not create guilt unless the mind is also guilty.

Damage hardens us all. It will harden you too, when it finds you—and it will find you

An emotion is a thought, yes, an idea, but it is also a sensation, an ache in your body. Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion - you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.

no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed