Douglas Kennedy
Douglas Kennedy
unique stories
All our stories are simultaneously unique and desperately similar, aren't they?
lying hate dodge
We all talk about how much we hate lies. Yet we prefer, so often, to be lied to....because it allows us to dodge all those painful truths we'd rather not hear.
thinking wounds
We can rarely tell others what we really think about them--not just because it would so wound them, but also because it would so wound ourselves.
book writing matter
With a novel, no matter where I am in it, I'm fretting about it. Every time I write a book, it starts with great forward momentum. Then there seems to be a period where it slows down a bit, and other things intervene. Then I gain momentum.
agony would-be moments
There were moments when I felt seriously unhinged; when I was convinced that I would never, ever recover from what had happened, when it was absolutely clear to me that life from this point on would be constant agony ...
matter words-matter imports
Words matter, words have import.
believe healing bridges
We all want to fix things. Just as we all believe that so much in life can be rectified. Mend fences, build bridges, reach out, engage in mutual healing.
doubt individual
From Graham Greene, I learnt how to be an accessible writer who grapples with our doubts as sentient individuals.
serious novelists want
I want to be a popular novelist who's also serious, or a serious novelist who's also very accessible.
people ruins embrace
Success is a very fragile veneer. I get wary of people who embrace celebrity. It ruins people.
writing eight years
The decision to write full time was made when I was twenty-eight years old and had just had two small plays accepted for BBC Radio.
tragedy pay alive
Tragedy is one of the larger prices we pay for being alive. No one ever sidesteps tragedy. It is always there, shadowing us.
new-york writing two
I've been known to write on the Underground in London and on the subway in New York. I have two or three cafes in Paris that I go into. I find a corner with a little shade, and I can work.
keys admitting facts
We don't like admitting this, but it is a key component of human existence: the fact that life has the potential for things both wondrous and horrific.