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" I don't know that happy people are interesting to write about - or to read about. "
Patrick deWitt
Happy
Interesting
Know
Related Quotes:
" When you meet someone you love, whether or not they love you back, something occurs in you that makes you want to improve yourself. "
Patrick deWitt
You
Back
Love
" I'm never doing anything by rote. I'm only on thin ice, and I think that that's a good place to be. I feel like when you push yourself like that, the rewards can be pretty great. "
Patrick deWitt
Yourself
Good
Great
" I was halfway through a rough draft of 'The Sisters Brothers' when it came time to start the 'Terri' adaptation. "
Patrick deWitt
Time
Halfway
Start
" 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. "
Patrick deWitt
Trapped
Feel
Living
" 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. "
Patrick deWitt
Hard
You
Daily
" I haven't read hardly any Westerns, to tell you the truth. "
Patrick deWitt
Hardly
You
Westerns
" Bernie Madoff is probably more nuanced then I'm giving him credit for, but I just couldn't get under his skin. "
Patrick deWitt
Him
Giving
Credit
" 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. "
Patrick deWitt
Think
Art
College
" When your protagonist bores you, you're in trouble. "
Patrick deWitt
You
Protagonist
Your
" I know a lot of people who use the Internet really wisely. It enriches their lives in some way. "
Patrick deWitt
Internet
People
Some
" The initial spark, your affection for the characters, all those things can disappear. It's a perilous thing. "
Patrick deWitt
Affection
Things
Spark
" The nice thing about writing at home is that it's almost as though I'm doing it already. I get out of bed thinking of my work, and I don't have to go anywhere to do it. "
Patrick deWitt
Bed
Work
Home
" The impetus for 'The Sisters Brothers' was it occurred to me that there was no neurosis in westerns, or there's a minimal amount of it. "
Patrick deWitt
Sisters
Minimal
Me
" I've stopped reading about the death of books because it's wasteful and morbid and insulting to the authors, agents, publishers, booksellers, critics, and readers that keep the world community of fiction interesting. "
Patrick deWitt
Community
Books
Death
" I've been surprised at how much an unknown like myself can accomplish just by reaching out to people and pleading my case. Quotes for the book cover, reviews and interviews, readings and radio appearances - all this by simply moving ahead and making contact with folks I thought might enjoy the writing. "
Patrick deWitt
Myself
Writing
People
" 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. "
Patrick deWitt
More
View
Books
" Every industry has slack times, and everyone has bad days at work. "
Patrick deWitt
Bad Days
Work
Days
" I heard somewhere that whenever you write a book, people will ask you One Question about it over and over. And while I'm no expert in these matters, this is proving to be true. My first book dealt with a not-that-pleasant degenerate type, and the One Question was, 'Is this an autobiographical story?' "
Patrick deWitt
Book
You
True
" Whenever we changed schools, we had to make a new set of friends. At the time, of course, I hated it. But looking back now, I'm really glad I did, because it forces independence on you. "
Patrick deWitt
Friends
Looking Back
Looking
" I am a homebody, something that lends itself to my profession. "
Patrick deWitt
Homebody
Profession
Something
" 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. "
Patrick deWitt
Solitude
My Life
Life
" The question about my Canadianness comes up a lot, and I'm never quite sure what to say about it. I've carved a life out for myself in Oregon, and it feels like home, not because it's the States but because that's where my friends are and where my son is. "
Patrick deWitt
Home
Life
Friends
" I haven't read a lot of Westerns. But I wrote a Western. The influences were all cinematic. "
Patrick deWitt
Read
Westerns
Influences
" I think of myself as somebody who, in a moment-to-moment way, I'm quite happy. But I think I am a bit doubtful and wary of true happiness, and, like a lot of my friends, there's been a good degree of self-sabotage. "
Patrick deWitt
Myself
Happy
Good
" 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. "
Patrick deWitt
Lost
Hollywood
Job
" When you're 8 years old, and you've become subconsciously familiar with the layout and design of Black Sparrow books, and you know the difference between Miles Davis and John Coltrane, something is bound to stick. "
Patrick deWitt
Black
Design
You
" Often the starting point for characters, for me, is finding a little, most minor detail, and I'll go from there. "
Patrick deWitt
Me
Point
Starting
" I don't know that I'd call myself an optimist. "
Patrick deWitt
Optimist
Call
Know
" The idea is this: It's important to upset one's work habits, to topple the cart for each project. "
Patrick deWitt
Upset
Project
Important
" Unfunny people should be locked up, the key tossed into a smelter. "
Patrick deWitt
Key
People
Should