Chris Bohjalian
Chris Bohjalian
Chris Bohjalian, is an American novelist and the author of 18 novels, including the bestsellers Midwives and The Sandcastle Girls...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth12 August 1961
CountryUnited States of America
country eye animal
As Jeremy Bentham had asked about animals well over two hundred years ago, the question was not whether they could reason or talk, but could they suffer? And yet, somehow, it seemed to take more imagination for humans to identify with animal suffering than it did to conceive of space flight or cloning or nuclear fusion. Yes, she was a fanatic in the eyes of most of the country. . .Mostly, however, she just lacked patience for people who wouldn't accept her belief that humans inflicted needless agony on the animals around them, and they did so in numbers that were absolutely staggering.
phones nba novelists
As a novelist, there are three phone calls you never expect to receive in your lifetime because if you waited for them you would grow despairing - one calling from Stockholm with a Swedish accent, one from the NBA, and one from Oprah Winfrey.
lying moving your-side
Now it is you who everyone presumes is so fragile. Wounded. Scarred. Maybe they're right. Perhaps you are. A nursery rhyme comes into your head, and, like an egg, you allow yourself to topple onto your side, your legs still pulled hard against your torso. You lie like that a long while, watching the chrome shell of the tape measure sparkle until the sun moves.
war reality america
The reality is that most of North America knows next to nothing of the 20th centurys first genocide - the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in the First World War.
grandparent stories survivor
My grandparents, like many genocide survivors, took most of their stories to their graves.
distance small-moments looks
Life is filled with small moments that seem prosaic until one has the distance to look back and see the chain of large moments they unleashed.
dream past trying
And though some days it is very hard, I try not to live for the future. And I try not to dream of the past.
lying writing interesting
Lie. Put down on paper the most interesting lies you can imagine . . . and then make them plausible.
age acumen insight
With age comes acumen. With experience comes insight.
memories should treated
Food is a gift and should be treated reverentially--romanced and ritualized and seasoned with memory.
believe cherish family gives great introduce member might nonfiction novel otherwise people pick pleasure seem
People seem to read so much more nonfiction than fiction, and so it always gives me great pleasure to introduce a friend or family member to a novel I believe they'll cherish but might not otherwise have thought to pick up and read.
coming good pressure words
If you are stymied as a writer, if it's just not coming together, then take the pressure off and don't feel that you need to write 1,000 words today; just write one really good sentence.
books brand lesson love specific time
I think the most important lesson isn't necessarily to try and write a different book every time, or to try and brand yourself and write one specific kind of book, but to write the kind of books you love to read.
achieve personal
My personal opinion is that, if you're a professional writer, that you do have quotas. So every day I do try to write 800-1,200 words. I don't always achieve it, and the reality is that a lot of the words I write will end up on the cutting-room floor.