Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include Run, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, State of Wonder, and The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and received the Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award in 1994...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 December 1963
CountryUnited States of America
Ann Patchett quotes about
I am sure every writer has this and probably every newscaster, that people are always coming up to me and saying, my daughter wants to do what you do, my godson, my tennis partner.
No one tells the truth to people they don't actually know, and if they do it is a horrible trait. Everyone wants something smaller, something neater than the truth.
There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.
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.
People gave me such a bad time about wanting a baby. I didn't want a baby, and I still don't. I wanted a dog.
Some people need a huge amount of attention, and they are worthy of that attention, and they're still exhausting.
There are, of course, people who didn't create the trouble they're in, but lots of them do.
I love a large cast of characters. That's the way life is: it's flooded with people and we keep them all straight.
Show kindness whenever possible. Show it to the people in front of you, the people coming up behind you, and the people with whom you are running neck and neck. It will vastly improve the quality of your own life, the lives of others, and the state of the world.
We have different kinds of intimacy with many, many people. I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people.
You can’t control what other people think about your art. Think about the part of yourself that you can control, which is your ability to be kind and loving and creative.
I have seven step-siblings from my mother's second and third marriages. My degree of closeness to my step-siblings varies among the seven but I have a great sense of loyalty to all of them, especially the four from my childhood. If those people needed my help I would be there for them.
Maybe that was the definition of life everlasting: the belief that the next generation would carry your work forward.
I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.