American - Writer | June 27, 1953 -
A perfect poem you can't pin down and say, 'This is exactly what it meant to me.' It's not a self-help manual.
Alice McDermott
MeYouPerfectDownSayPoem
I am not a theologian or a historian, and I feel no call to become a defender of the faith, so in my case, the search for what remains valuable focuses on language itself: Catholic prayer, ritual, the naming of things.
FaithPrayerI AmSearchLanguage
Any fiction writer who assumes that a character is typical no doubt runs the risk of stumbling into cliche and stereotype.
CharacterDoubtRiskFictionWriter
I think a misconception among many non-religious people is that anyone with a strong faith is, in all ways and at all times, blindly consistent, unwavering, unquestioning.
FaithPeopleStrongThinkBlindly
The language of the Catholic Church - the liturgy, the prayer, the gospels - was in many ways my first poetry.
PrayerPoetryLanguageChurchFirst
After a long run of almost thirty years, you get to the point where you say, 'These are my concerns.' It's not so much this is what I set out to claim - it is a kind of refrain.
LongYouSayKindRunThirty
In grammar school I read 'Act One' by Moss Hart, and being a playwright struck me as the most magical and romantic career anyone could have... But I never did write a play.
RomanticSchoolMeCareerPlayMoss
I'm a novelist. I'm not a crusader, and I'm not an editorial writer. And I'm not writing fiction to convince anybody of anything.
WritingFictionAnythingConvince
I love a well-plotted story. But I'm just not that kind of writer, and it's not necessarily by choice. When I manipulate plot, I feel I lose authenticity.
LoveStoryFeelLoseChoiceKind
I was one of those kids who always wrote.
AlwaysWhoKidsThoseWrote
I was the youngest; I had two imperious older brothers - I didn't get to often complete sentences at the dinner table. So writing was a way of saying what nobody asked me to say.
MeDinnerWritingSayingTableSay
I learned really early on that I had to treat it as if it were a real job. This might be my middle class background - the Irish work ethic, which isn't quite the same as the Protestant work ethic - but still, it's, 'Get a job and show up every day. Be there. And don't complain. Who do you think you are: you're nobody special; go to work.'
WorkDayJobTreatThinkWork Ethic
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