Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro
Daneile Joyce "Dani" Shapiro is the author of five novels and the best-selling memoirs Slow Motion and Devotion. She has also written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and ELLE...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 April 1962
CountryUnited States of America
country lonely husband
In the country, I stopped being a person who, in the words of Sylvia Boorstein, startles easily. I grew calmer, but beneath that calm was a deep well of loneliness I hadn't known was there. ... Anxiety was my fuel. When I stopped, it was all waiting for me: fear, anger, grief, despair, and that terrible, terrible loneliness. What was it about? I was hardly alone. I loved my husband and son. I had great friends, colleagues, students. In the quiet, in the extra hours, I was forced to ask the question, and to listen carefully to the answer: I was lonely for myself. [p. 123]
country urban living-in-the-country
I'm an urban person who loves living in the country.
country moving perspective
Moving to the country has been incredibly good for my work, for my sense of perspective.
learn time
With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.
guru social function
If there's anything weirder than an introverted writer going to lots of social functions, it's an introverted writer being converted into an accidental guru.
pieces want one-piece
I did want to feel like life's all of one piece.
thinking community solitude
I think so much about how we read, about the nature of solitude, and of community, is changing in ways that none of us yet understand.
public-speaking bigger found
I found myself doing so much public speaking, more and more and bigger and bigger.
community littles hungry
We're all simultaneously separated and connected by our devices, staring into our little screens, and also hungry for experience and community.
heart open-your-heart deep-inside
Open your hearts. Deep inside ourselves, we are all one and the same.
believe world given
You have to believe in yourself before the world has given you any indication that you should believe in yourself as a writer.
mother art pain
I've certainly faced some raw, real pain in my life. I lost my father to a car accident when I was young. My mother died ten years ago. My son was very sick as an infant. Eventually, I have attempted to transform this pain into art, to make meaning out of it.
teacher eye miracle
Our teachers are everywhere. Our teachers are right in front of us, and take so many forms. All we need to do is to open our eyes, to be open to and aware of the possibilities. Otherwise, we walk sightless among miracles.
moments truth-is present-moment
The truth is in the present moment.