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All Quotes by author - Patrick deWitt
" After school, I got a job in a shop in Hollywood and shared an apartment with a friend. I promptly lost my job and got evicted from my apartment, and that happened several times. "
Lost
Hollywood
Job
" After 'The Sisters Brothers,' I tried to write a contemporary story dealing with an investment adviser in New York City who moves to Paris. I did all this research, but after about a year and any number of pages written, I was bored stiff. "
New York
Paris
Research
" All of my close friends are emotional train wrecks. This is what makes our lives interesting - constantly doubting ourselves, worrying, wondering if we've made a mistake. Could we have done better? Are we good people? Are we bad people? "
Good People
Mistake
People
" All the books I was reading as a teenager were about individuals having adventures. So I thought that was what writers were supposed to do: to go out on the road. "
Road
Thought
Go
" A lot of authors, judging by their list, will put anything out that they finish... That's the worst model I've heard of in my life. It's just idiotic. Why wouldn't you just wait for the good ones? "
You
Wait
My Life
" A lot of my favourite books - I should say, not much happens in the books! It's much more about the points of view of the author more than anything else. "
More
View
Books
" As a reader I want to be present and entertained. I don't want to be taught lessons, and I don't want to be spoken down to. I want to be treated as a peer and to be made to feel welcome. "
Feel
Welcome
Want
" At the age of seventeen, I decided I would spend my life writing fiction. I didn't know what this entailed, exactly - a room, I supposed. A room and books and paper and solitude. "
Solitude
My Life
Life
" Bernie Madoff is probably more nuanced then I'm giving him credit for, but I just couldn't get under his skin. "
Him
Giving
Credit
" By the time I left the bar, I was 30. I was a dishwasher. They call it a bar-back, but essentially, I washed dishes for a living. I had no high-school diploma, I had no agent, and my literary successes were non-existent... but it was the only thing I ever wanted to do, so I did feel trapped. "
Trapped
Feel
Living
" Certain writers look down their noses at plot, and I think I might have been one of them until I tried it. "
Plot
Been
Look
" Especially if you're endeavouring daily to write your own books, you read with a degree of - well, it's hard to forget you're a writer when you're reading. "
Hard
You
Daily
" Every industry has slack times, and everyone has bad days at work. "
Bad Days
Work
Days
" Humorous writing is often thought of as substandard in comparison to work with a more dramatic or tragic intent. I don't know what to say to this except that I disagree wholeheartedly. "
Work
More
Know
" I am a bit prudish, I think. It's hard for me to write about sex, and I don't really care to read about it, either. "
Think
Sex
Care
" I am a homebody, something that lends itself to my profession. "
Homebody
Profession
Something
" I am increasingly unimpressed by works of art that require a college degree to understand. I think that art should be for everyone. And people should be moved by it. "
Think
Art
College
" I carry a small spiral notebook with me at all times and have been doing this for many years. There's a shoe box in my closet filled with these notebooks, each riddled with notes and impressions, ideas, schemes, and soup recipes. "
Small
Soup
Me
" I come by writing dialogue fairly naturally, I've got a chatty family; I'm a bit of a voyeur, and if I'm ever in a public place, I automatically find myself listening. "
Myself
Writing
Find
" I don't consider Los Angeles home anymore; ultimately, it was pretty negative, but I did spend my formative years in the Valley and all around L.A. proper. Through my teenage years and into my young adulthood, up until the age of 30, I spent a good amount of time there. "
Age
Young
Time
" I don't know that happy people are interesting to write about - or to read about. "
Happy
Interesting
Know
" I don't know that I'd call myself an optimist. "
Optimist
Call
Know
" I don't necessarily want to make people stomp and clap. I simply want to engage people. "
Clap
Engage
Make
" I felt like love has been underrepresented - unironic love, just actually really falling in love. "
Love
Falling
Falling In Love
" If I were to continue to work in an established mode, it stands to reason the work would be limited by this - that it would never surpass the prior work in quality. "
Reason
Continue
Never
" If you're not riddled with doubt, you've probably done something wrong. "
Something
Doubt
Done
" I had no plan to write a western novel, and when I realized it was happening, I was pretty surprised by it. But you have to go with what feels right. "
Right
You
Go
" I have a paranoia that 'Ablutions' is the best thing I'll ever do. "
Paranoia
Best
Thing
" I haven't read a lot of Westerns. But I wrote a Western. The influences were all cinematic. "
Read
Westerns
Influences
" I haven't read hardly any Westerns, to tell you the truth. "
Hardly
You
Westerns
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