In this life we love who we love. There were some stories in which facts were very nearly irrelevant.
Ann PatchettI have seven step-siblings from my mother's second and third marriages. My degree of closeness to my step-siblings varies among the seven but I have a great sense of loyalty to all of them, especially the four from my childhood. If those people needed my help I would be there for them.
Ann PatchettI believe that, more than anything else, this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself.
Ann PatchettI always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like somebody.
Ann PatchettFor the most part wisdom comes in chips rather than blocks. You have to be willing to gather them constantly, and from sources you never imagined to be probable. No one chip gives you the answer for everything. No one chip stays in the same place throughout your entire life. The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If youโre lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day youโre alive.
Ann Patchett