Jill McCorkle
Jill McCorkle
Jill Collins McCorkleis an American short story writer and novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 July 1958
CountryUnited States of America
garden thinking choices
Certainly if I were to think in terms of a field that would have required a different mode of education, I think I would have leaned in the direction of being a therapist. And without the education, or a different kind of education, I think my first choice would be a landscape architect. I love to garden.
real writing together
I feel very protective in the first draft, when all the pieces are coming together. I work in a way that is not linear or chronological at all, even with the short story. I will just be writing bits and pieces, and then when I have all the pieces on the table, that for me is when it feels like the real work begins.
survival-skills skills survival
Humor - I see it as a survival skill.
marriage party mean
I think that marriage vows should include an escape clause that says the contract is broken if one party ups and makes a big switch in religion or politics or aesthetic taste. I mean, these shifts just aren't fair, and we need an easier way out.
powerful safe neighbor
Steve Yarbrough is a masterful storyteller-one of our finest-and Safe from the Neighbors is a masterpiece. . . . This is a spellbinding, powerful novel.
choices chance
There is a choice to make, a chance to take.
children silly kids
We used to all come outside when the streetlights came on and prowl the neighborhood in a pack, a herd of kids on banana-seat bikes and minibikes. The grown-ups looked so silly framed in their living-room and kitchen windows. They complained about their days and signed deep sighs of depression and loss. They talked about how spoiled and lucky children were these days. We will never be that way, we said, we will never say those things.
notebook growing-up tree
I thought that we were all like trees, flexible youths, saplings, who grow up heavy and stiff, spread seeds and get chopped down and turned into notebook paper.
smart subconscious
You will never be as smart as your subconscious.
work-out vision way
For me, a happy ending is not everything works out just right and there is a big bow, it's more coming to a place where a person has a clear vision of his or her own life in a way that enables them to kind of throw down their crutches and walk.
past moon blue
The silver friend knows your present and the gold friend knows all of your past dirt and glories. Once in a blue moon there is someone who knows it all, someone who knows and accepts you unconditionally, someone who is there for life.
fiction fine interested line pushing
I am very interested in that fine line between fiction and reality and between comedy and tragedy - and pushing the line as much as possible.
characters dealt draft freedom material might situations sprung worries
The first draft is all about freedom, and if loyalty is in question, it is only my loyalty to the characters and situations on the page. All the worries about where the material may have sprung from or what so-and-so might think can be dealt with later.
characters entry identify speaks
You want to feel that your reader does identify with the characters so that there's a real entry into the story - that some quality speaks to the individual.