Jami Attenberg Quotes

An ellipsis is a giant ocean of possibilities.

We are human beings, not ants.

In the wintertime I like macaroni and cheese.

With apologies to all my past boyfriends, I never loved a man the way I loved my old apartment.

My laptop broke and because of the storm I could not get a new one. And so I've been promoting my book via iPhone.

I don't pretend for a second that I'm that great of a person on a day-to-day basis. I'm a deeply flawed human.

I smoked for many years like a total idiot.

Sometimes, things are just exercises.

I wish I had the luxury of time to read and write like grad students do. That sounds pretty awesome. When I was writing my first book one of my friends was going to grad school at the same time and I heard a lot of stories about drinking, too. I feel like everyone was having affairs.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is a breezy, big-hearted treat, especially if you've ever wondered about the inner workings of America's national treasures--neighborhood bookstores.

The fascinating thing about food is that if you have issues with it, you have to face it every single day.

Studying writing to me means reading and also rewriting obsessively. That's the best way to learn.

I'm not that much of a researcher. I'm good at channeling characters, and I'm good at structure.

What's the point of having a book club if you don't get to eat brownies and drink wine?

Writers have a job to do. Editors do, too. You have to stand ground and cede ground on a case by case basis. When an editor tells me something isn't working and I still believe in it, I tend to think it just isn't working hard enough.

It's good to try stuff. I wrote a book that I threw away, and I think I just wrote it so I could try stuff in it and not be scared

My last book was speculative. I just don't quite know what I am doing. But I'll get there. I have a list of things I would love to write.

Maybe just as many women writers as male writers could be billed as the next great American writer by their publisher. Maybe book criticism sections could review an equal amount of female and male writers. Maybe Oprah could start putting some books by women authors in her book club, since most of her audience is women.

Please make me either relatable or terrible.

In its current incarnation in my life touring is a lot of airports and hotels and car services and only OK food.

In 1998, I started a blog, something I could control very easily and update at my own whim.

People judge you because of your weight and your food issues. It's very visual.

I love reading books that you can't put down, and they just take you over for a night or a weekend.

I wish I could write while I'm on the road but it never works for me. I need to be sitting still.

I remember being banned from other houses as a younger child during the winter holiday season; I was the only one who didn't believe in Santa Claus, and I was ruining everyone's Christmas.

Smart, sharp, and hilarious, Slaughterhouse 90210 is the perfect pick-me-up and never-put-me-down book.

I had always loved life on the road. It was just something that appealed to me very deeply.

I'd love to be able to write crazy epic plots. I'm working on it.

What I try very hard to do is have an hour or so in the morning when I leave the house and don't have my phone with me. I'll go sit in a cafe and read and handwrite in my notebook and not be facing a screen. My head will be clear. I will be able to hear myself think. Because honestly for the rest of the day it's just screens, screens, screens.

I find that short stories are almost like palate cleansers, or brain cleansers.

Wouldn't that be nice if we could all afford to just freely pursue our dreams?

I've just always written, and always considered myself a writer. I wrote my first story when I was five. There was nothing else I wanted to do or be.

You can quit smoking, and never have to have a cigarette again to survive. But with food, it is a daily challenge.

The very best parts of me go into my writing, it is the best version of myself, and I don't think it's hubristic to believe that that's worth something, worth someone else's time. It's the most I have to offer the world.

I love doing readings. I could really give a crap about reviews. It's kind of about the readers.

I just think structure can make a book feel so much bigger. It's the architecture. You could use flimsy materials if you wanted to, even, but it could still feel big.

I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.

Most of my writer friends are women, and they're all extremely talented, so of course I think the state of contemporary fiction for women is pretty great. Which is to say there is a ton of amazing work out there. These women are writing hard. There's much to be said. We're on it, chief.

And we all get mired in the bullshit, the personality quirks, the personality disorders (ours and everyone else's), the jealousy, the disappointment, the blocks, the financial struggle, our egos, I do it too, I do it too, but if you can't remember it is all about the work and nothing else then I can't help you and you can't help yourself and you will lose. I promise you. You will lose.