Top 66 Quotes by Alice McDermott

I like that original romance of having a pen and a legal pad and going anywhere in the world and being able to write a novel with just those two things.

You're a human being, and every time a list of prize nominations comes out and your name isn't on it, you do have that thumb-in-the-eye feeling.

In the act of reading, especially reading fiction, where a world is being created, all kinds of matters of belief come into play.

I'm a coastal person. I grew up in Long Island and lived in San Diego. I felt landlocked in Pittsburgh. Psychically, it just wasn't the place for me.

Loss is inevitable - you have to be blind or naive to think otherwise.

Any adjective you put before the noun 'writer' is going to be limiting in some way. Whether it's feminist writer, Jewish writer, Russian writer, or whatever.

I'm writing all the time. I tend to work on at least two books simultaneously. I'll spend time with one, and then I'll spend time with the other. Finishing takes whatever time it takes.

For me, having characters who are part of a faith then allows me to talk about how that faith either works or fails them without having to attack the institution.

Memory is not pure. Memories told are not pure memories; memories told are stories. The storyteller will change them. I've always been interested in that.

I was one of those kids who always wrote.