Ann Patchett Quotes About Giving
-
Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.
→ -
Staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.
→ -
Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.
→ -
I love telling people what to read. It's my favorite thing in the world, to buy books and force books on people, take bad books away from people, give them better books.
→ -
From my table inside I watch the glamorous women outside who are lunching on Spa Cobb salads without blue cheese or dressing. The man with the bread basket wanders from table to table, lonesome as a cloud. When he comes to me his basket is full and perfectly arranged. He gives me a smile of sincere pleasure when I tell him I will take both the sourdough roll and the cheese stick.
→ -
For the most part wisdom comes in chips rather than blocks. You have to be willing to gather them constantly, and from sources you never imagined to be probable. No one chip gives you the answer for everything. No one chip stays in the same place throughout your entire life. The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If you’re lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you’re alive.
→ -
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.
→ -
Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone.
→ -
No matter how much we love a book, the experience of reading it isn't complete until we can give it to someone who will love it as much as we do
→
Related Authors
-
Lucy Grealy Poet -
Jennifer Egan Novelist -
Abraham Verghese Physician -
Hector Tobar Author -
Elizabeth McCracken Author -
Geraldine Brooks Journalist -
Erin Morgenstern Writer -
Richard Russo Novelist -
Elizabeth Benedict Novelist -
Michael Chabon Author -
Sue Monk Kidd Writer -
Barbara Kingsolver Novelist -
Gillian Flynn Author -
Elizabeth Gilbert Author -
Colson Whitehead Novelist -
Donna Tartt Writer -
Katrina Kenison Author -
Jhumpa Lahiri Author -
Anne Lamott Novelist -
Jenna Blum Writer