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
Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.
That is the strange thing; I don't know if you want to call it the subconscious, but things that I don't seem to notice are getting stored away.
I like the notion that people are appreciative of the fact that my work is sometimes allusive and that there is an interrelationship of the arts.
What does it matter what my personality is? It's fair enough to talk about the stories, but they're not an autobiographical display.
It was very much a surprise. It's very nice when someone takes notice.
While I would agree that I write about serious subjects, and that they're not necessarily the most pleasant subjects or even the most pleasant people, as a writer I just think about the humorous aspects of these things - that's what keeps me going when I'm writing a story.
I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works.
I must say also that it's never worked to my disadvantage that I have long, blond hair.
The admiration of another writer’s work is almost in inverse proportion to similarities in style.
I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around.
Also minimalism is a term that all of us who share so little in common and who are lumped together as minimalists are not terribly happy with.
I could name a few songs and say exactly what summer they came out and what boy I thought I was in love with when I was fourteen years old, but I think that music used to be really more a part of the culture when people went out dancing in a different way than they do now.
I think that I'm serious, but I don't think that I'm inordinately bleak.
I've spent my life supporting myself.