Bonnie Jo Campbell
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Bonnie Jo Campbellis an American novelist and short story writer. Her most recent work is Mothers, Tell Your Daughters, published with W.W. Norton and Company...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
writing luck ifs
I thought that you had to learn to write by yourself and if you couldn't do it, then you were out of luck.
jobs real thinking
I worked probably fewer jobs than most people, or fewer real soul-killing jobs than other people. I've been a typist, a typesetter, a keyliner, cappuccino-maker. I think I've been pretty lucky.
adventure thinking world
I think back when I was kind of a crappy writer, I really did know my time was better spent working and having adventures and seeing the world.
mistake school california
That was a mistake, I guess, going out to California. They have these things called guidance counselors in high school. They drink a lot of herbal tea.
school california southern
I didn't actually figure out how to get guidance, so I just decided to go to school at University of Southern California because they sent me a glossy brochure.
smart people cautiousness
My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness.
dwelling miles quarters
Where I live you're not supposed to shoot a firearm within a quarter mile of a dwelling.
writing animal stories
Maybe the hardest lesson is the one I have to learn over and over again, that each story is its own animal, that every story I write is going to come only with difficulty.
hard-work writing lessons
The best and easiest lesson for me was to learn that writing is mostly hard work.
mind portions findings
As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my mind a good portion of most days.
moving worry people
I figure that I'm always going to be fine, one way or another, but I do worry about other people who have difficulty moving from one world to the next. It's the folks who are truly invested in their lives who have the hardest time with change.
writing self my-own
I'm not much interested in my own self when I write. I'm interested in what I observe out there, what's going on around me.
morning writing fighting
I can't personally drink or fight too much nowadays because I have to be perky in the morning in order to write.
country drinking class
Drugs and drinking affect every family I know, country and city, middle-class and poor.