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" 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

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" Something that's interesting is how my perspective on different events can change over time even though the events themselves haven't changed. As I get older, I interpret something differently, or I can even interpret a person differently. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" No book I publish will be perfect, but I need to feel I've taken it as far as I can. "

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" 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. "

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" I enjoy reading tips about how to be more organized, and I rarely implement them. "

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" 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

" I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing. "

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" 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. "

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" I don't think everyone is equally haunted by high school, but I also don't think it's unusual to be. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" 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

" 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

" 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

" I should probably be careful admitting this, but sometimes, when my characters are having a disagreement, it's a disagreement I'm having with myself. I can see both sides of the argument. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" You know, the point of a novel - or to me, the point of a novel, the gift of a novel is to go really deeply inside people's lives and inside their personal experiences. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" 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

" There are so many people who are so much better qualified to write about politics than I am. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I think there are people who think 'high school was the peak of my life,' and there are people who think it was dreadful, and then, I think most people are somewhere in between. I do think that it's normal to experience strong emotions during that time, and I think those emotions stay with you. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" 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

" 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

" 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 do think I was trying to entertain the reader more than I was trying to purge myself. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" 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

" When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I always wrote from a very young age, literally from the time I learned how to read and write. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" In some ways I think it would be very dignified if I went away for twenty years and then wrote my fourth book. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I'm so trying to give up meat. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" In 2013, before the publication of my fourth novel, I met with a stylist at Nordstrom. Since then, I've rarely shopped for 'event clothes' on my own. I usually do it with my sisters or a friend; if I'm alone, I take pictures of myself in the dressing room and text them to my sisters. "

Curtis Sittenfeld