Walter Kirn
Walter Kirn
Walter Kirn is an American novelist, literary critic, and essayist. He is the author of eight books, most notably Up in the Air, which was made into a movie starring George Clooney...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
atmosphere liked
At college, I wanted to be a poet. I liked the extremely concentrated language, the atmosphere of otherworldliness.
Ask Jeeves! Who ever used that thing? College freshmen to find out who Goethe was - that's it.
A writer who isn't writing is asking for trouble.
becoming events fiction hope interact life longer notion people problem resembles somewhere stories stranger troubled writers
I read somewhere once that in the 1960s, fiction writers were troubled by the notion that life was becoming stranger and more sensational than made-up stories could ever hope to be. Our new problem - more profound, I think - is that life no longer resembles a story. Events intersect but don't progress. People interact but don't make contact.
depend endured future time won
The future of time, of how it's won or lost, endured or enjoyed, expanded or compressed, will depend on how it's valued, not how it's measured.
blame business cherish convinced count drunk inspiring involved partisan prospect public reason spreading thereby usual washington
The reason that last-ditch political maneuvering has become business as usual in Washington is that the actors involved are drunk on blame and are convinced that the voting public is, too. They count on outrage, thereby spreading numbness. They cherish the prospect of partisan fury, thereby inspiring nonpartisan disgust.
came continues groups left mormons peace people rest understand west
They don't understand that in the West, there are many groups that have not yet made their peace with the rest of America. . . . People came to the West to be left alone, as the Mormons did. The West continues to be an experimental American culture.
borders fifty hundred move start
A hundred and fifty years ago, this was just a continent. You could move to the borders and start a whole new country.
affairs almost four good great include record three wildly
Good short-story collections, like good record albums, are almost always hit-and-miss affairs - successful if they include three or four great tracks, wildly successful if they have five. And that's as it should be.
may realizing someday
You thought you were found but you realize that you were lost, and someday you may discover that you're lost now.
dream bad-dream vague
I preferred that my bad dreams be vague.
way honest accusing
Requesting permission from someone to be honest is really a way of accusing the other person of being so demanding or overbearing that you couldn't be honest all along.
thinking use someday
A writer is someone who tells you one thing so someday he can tell his readers another thing: what he was thinking but declined to say, or what he would have thought had he been wiser. A writer turns his life into material, and if you're in his life, he uses yours, too.
mind size fit
I feel like my head is finally the right size. I feel like it finally fits around my mind.