Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie
Ann Beattieis an American novelist and short story writer. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger, John Cheever, and John Updike. She holds an undergraduate degree from American University and a master's degree from the University of Connecticut...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth8 September 1947
CountryUnited States of America
It's gratifying that it does; I love to give readings.
What will happen can't be stopped. Aim for Grace.
You put a character out there and you're in their power. You're in trouble if they're in yours.
Any life will seem dramatic if you omit mention of most of it.
Women are obviously much more discriminated against than men in many ways.
I am not alone in bearing grudges against reviewers who have doomed a book's chances because they've missed the point, the tone, everything....
When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.
When I lived in New York, not only did I have safety locks on the door but I had the music going, keeping the city at a distance, trying to find creative time and peace and so forth.
It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.
I don't even correct people when they mispronounce my name now.
You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story.
It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order.
Whatever one intends, the work takes on a life of its own.
I think I write about things that are mysterious to me.