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
lines who-we-are levels
The lines we draw that make us who we are are potent by virtue of being non-negotiable, and even, at some level, indefensible.
hate love-you enemy
Memo to extreme partisans: If you can't bring yourselves to love your enemies, can you at least learn to hate your friends?
powerful love-is painkillers
Love is a powerful painkiller.
choices together important
Some strangers become more important to you than family, maybe because you're not expected to love them. You can leave them whenever you want to. They can, too. Every moment together is a choice.
insightful fiction stories
Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.
world sometimes heartbeat
Sometimes, when a person is truly lost in this world, suffocating inside her private bubble where all she can hear is her own droning heartbeat, a touch can be enough.
book memorable popcorn
I love reference books, especially collections of memorable quotations, almanacs, and atlases. Facts to me are like candy or popcorn - small, tasty delights - and I like to gorge on them now and then.
mean attachment apologizing
To apologize for your personal absolutes, for what Sandy Pinter calls your “Core Attachments,” means apologizing for your very existence.
long witch hunts
Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.
interesting acting retarded
He knows, as all the cleverest ones do, that no human being is so interesting that he can't make himself more interesting still by acting retarded at random intervals.
real hate alternatives
Reason leavened with a little wit (if possible) is the real alternative to hate speech, meaning that there's no better time for it.
use turns materials
A writer turns his life into material, and if you’re in his life, he uses yours, too.
moving touching age
In the age of networked everything, life moves sideways and covers lots of ground while barely touching the earth..
cold bones chickens
What was more humiliating, I wondered: having to beg for someone's cold chicken bones or being offered them?