Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.
Ann PatchettI was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing wouldn't have any rewards. Maybe the salvation I would gain through work would only be emotional and intellectual. Wouldn't that be enough, to be a waitress who found an hour or two hidden in every day to write?
Ann PatchettI craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book.
Ann PatchettI can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.
Ann PatchettFrom my table inside I watch the glamorous women outside who are lunching on Spa Cobb salads without blue cheese or dressing. The man with the bread basket wanders from table to table, lonesome as a cloud. When he comes to me his basket is full and perfectly arranged. He gives me a smile of sincere pleasure when I tell him I will take both the sourdough roll and the cheese stick.
Ann Patchett