I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like somebody.
Ann PatchettI was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.
Ann PatchettPraise and criticism seem to me to operate exactly on the same level. If you get a great review, it's really thrilling for about ten minutes. If you get a bad review, it's really crushing for ten minutes. Either way, you go on.
Ann PatchettMaybe there would be a bad outcome for some of the others, but no one was going to shoot a soprano.
Ann Patchett