Whenever I saw her, I felt like I had been living in another country, doing moderately well in another language, and then she showed up speaking English and suddenly I could speak with all the complexity and nuance that I hadn't realized was gone. With Lucy I was a native speaker.
Ann PatchettIt was all in my head and now all I had to do was figure out a way to get it down on paper.
Ann PatchettI know where I'm going. And if I don't know where I'm going, I don't tend to get anywhere.
Ann PatchettWriting is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.
Ann PatchettComing back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which aided by several detours--long hallways and unforeseen stairwells--eventually puts you in the place you are now.
Ann Patchett