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" I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Me
Special
Try
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" I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Reading
Time
Think
" For 'Gender Studies,' I wrote that story in May and June of 2016. People have said to me, 'Oh, it's a political allegory,' and I think, 'Sure.' The political stuff is definitely there. But that's why I like fiction; there can be lots of different things going on, and it's all intertwined, and you can't separate out what's in what category. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Me
People
Political
" I never write something and consciously embed political commentary or any other kind of commentary. I just try to get the characters into a room or out of a room, or onto the plane, or through the grocery store. The political stuff, the class stuff, the gender stuff, is in the air, it's in their interactions, because it's there for all of us. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Gender
Try
Political
" High school is very intense for everyone. But at a boarding school, because you're there 24 hours a day, everything gets magnified. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
You
Day
Everyone
" Weirdly, even as I became more confident as a writer and as a person, I completely lost faith in my own ability to shop for clothes. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Clothes
Confident
My Own
" I'm able to separate fiction and reality. I guess it remains to be seen if other people are. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Fiction
Other
People
" In general, I believe it's fine to have impassioned conversations about Gwyneth Paltrow, but those of us who do so should admit it's a recreational activity and not a moral referendum. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
I Believe
Moral
Us
" A lot of times, in a store, clothes appear strange to me, their cuts or flourishes arbitrary. Why is this look stylish now? How long will it be stylish for? It's slightly embarrassing to admit this - because, as a novelist, I'm supposed to be observant - but I'm flummoxed by the way other women dress. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Women
Me
Look
" I see 'Eligible' as a homage, and I see 'Pride and Prejudice' as a perfect book. You can dispute whether this project is a good idea, but you can't dispute my fondness for the novel. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
You
See
Book
" Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Imitation
You
Try
" The nightmare reviewer is the reviewer who has some sort of agenda that precludes him or her responding sincerely to the book. Often, that agenda is seeming clever and/or taking someone who has received more than her fair share of attention down a notch. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Someone
Clever
Book
" I just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
People
Women
Complicated
" There's an ongoing 'water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink' situation at my house in terms of both pens and paper. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Drink
Water
Situation
" I don't think everyone is equally haunted by high school, but I also don't think it's unusual to be. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Everyone
High School
Think
" I grew up in Cincinnati, the birthplace of the creamiest and most delicious ice cream with the hugest chocolate chips. Graeter's used to be available only regionally, but an extravagant thing you could do was overnight-ship six pints to another state, in dry ice. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Ice
You
Used
" Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Life
Person
Think
" When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Two
Books
Doing
" Sometimes, there can be a slightly condescending assumption that anything unlikable about a female character is a mistake, as if they're a contestant in a beauty pageant and have to seem charming and upbeat all the time. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Character
Seem
Time
" It's never that hard for me to imagine what it must feel like to be someone else, whether it's an American teenage girl or a Japanese octogenarian man. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Feel
Someone
Girl
" No book I publish will be perfect, but I need to feel I've taken it as far as I can. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Need
Feel
Perfect
" I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Women
Men
More
" My boarding school experience was the only thing I had strong enough feelings to write about for hundreds and hundreds of pages. I can still smell the formaldehyde of the fetal pigs in biology. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
School
Feelings
Experience
" For most of my life - well, maybe half of my life, but basically until I was in my mid-20s - I wrote stories. From the time I was 5 or 6 until I was 25. And I read a lot of stories during that time. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Half
Well
Life
" The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Book
Attention
Age
" Of course I know my characters are unlikable sometimes or have prejudices. It's not as if I'm thinking they're so endearing all the time. I guess it's much more interesting to me to write someone who is a combination of good and bad qualities because that's what people are like in real life. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Time
Life
Me
" I don't think I anticipated supporting myself as a writer... I expected I would have to be a teacher or a journalist, that I wouldn't just write full time. It's such a part of my life, and in some ways, it's a very unromantic part of my life. It's almost, to me, like breathing. I don't think about whether I like it or not. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Life
Myself
Teacher
" I'm so trying to give up meat. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Give
Meat
Up
" There are so many people who are so much better qualified to write about politics than I am. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Write
Better
I Am
" I'm aware more than I was before I had books published that any review is a bit arbitrary - it's not really, say, 'The New York Times' that's authoritatively weighing in on the quality of a book, though it seems this way to the public. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
New York
Say
Quality
" I just write the books that I think I would want to read. "
Curtis Sittenfeld
Books
Think
Want