Kathryn Harrison
Kathryn Harrison
Kathryn Harrisonis an American author...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAutobiographer
Date of Birth20 March 1961
CountryUnited States of America
work
I can't work out much about myself or what I see in the world around me unless I do it through writing.
How much of a book review is about the reviewer? Sometimes it's mostly about the reviewer!
For years, the place I really lived - the world I watched, the one I thought and wrote about - was 15th-century France.
life nonfiction offers
Because the kind of nonfiction I write has a plot, the events and transactions that make up a life, nonfiction offers me a break from plotting.
dwell few relationships writers
A lot of writers dwell on their relationships with their mothers, but only a few are worth reading.
bad drew eccentric family quite sort terms
I think in terms of the parents that I had, I sort of drew a bad hand, or bad karma; who knows? And I did have a family that was complicated, with some quite eccentric members. So there was a lot of grist there.
arc changed course history hundred joan likely war
The least likely of military leaders, Joan of Arc changed the course of the Hundred Years' War and of history.
feels people reveal whether
Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, I've never had the sense I was 'making up' a character. It feels more like watching people reveal themselves, ever more deeply, more intimately.
according arc birth born centuries continue family girl joan knew mark six spinning time watching
Joan of Arc was born 600 years ago. Six centuries is a long time to continue to mark the birth of a girl who, according to her family and friends, knew little more than spinning and watching over her father's flocks.
admire art consider demand determined himself might reveal whatever writers
I admire writers who succeed at what I consider the first demand of art: that the artist vivisect himself without pity, without hesitation, determined to reveal whatever he might find.
children everybody large manage michelle private
Looking at the Obamas, they have a lot to manage with their children and having Michelle go out and have everybody comment on what she was wearing, what it means. I think you have to create a pretty large private world to live in.
animals biography famous found gave lion mad monk
I like vampires, tuberculosis, anything to do with blood. Then I read a biography of Rasputin and found out he'd had this daughter who had become a famous lion tamer and been billed as the daughter of the mad monk who was able to hypnotize animals with her eyes. It gave me a vision.
brief child grew invented larger life men remember seeing twice
I remember seeing my father only twice as a child for brief visits. As I grew up, I invented a father who was larger than life - stronger, smarter, more handsome, and even holier than other men.
capable certainly discuss people perfectly polite politics raised religion
I am perfectly capable of writing things about myself that one doesn't discuss in polite company, but I was raised by people who said you don't discuss politics, you don't discuss religion, and you certainly don't discuss people's sex lives.