Quotes by Charles Baxter

Charles Baxter

[T]he astonishing purity of pain, how it will not be mixed with any other sensation.

Astonishing

Pain

Purity

A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unseen.

Details

Unseen

Writing

At least with pets, and for all I know, people too, intelligence and quick-wittedness have nothing to do with a talent for being loved, or being kind, nothing at all, less than nothing.

Be Kind

People

Pet

Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn’t have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.

Always Trying

Mean

Quality

Every relationship has at least one really good day. What I mean is, no matter how sour things go, there’s always that day. That day is always in your possession. That’s the day you remember. You get old and you think: well, at least I had that day. It happened once. You think all the variables might just line up again. But they don’t. Not always. I once talked to a woman who said, “Yeah, that’s the day we had an angel around.

Angel

Good Day

Mean

Gainfully unemployed, very proud of it, too.

Retirement

Teacher

Work

I don’t think that most women have to prove that they’re real women. You live long enough, you graduate to being real.

Long

Real

Thinking

I feel quite at home writing short stories but nervous and anxious when writing novels, as if the bad time of consecutive failures might arise again.

Home

Stories

Writing

I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.

Novel

Produce

Stories

In February, the overcast sky isn’t gloomy so much as neutral and vague. It’s a significant factor in the common experience of depression among the locals. The snow crunches under your boots and clings to your trousers, to the cuffs, and once you’re inside, the snow clings to you psyche, and eventually you have to go to the doctor. The past soaks into you in this weather because the present is missing almost entirely.

Doctors

Past

Sky

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Air

Always Trying

Angel

Astonishing

Be Kind

Blame

Book

Broken Heart

Character

Choices

Destiny

Details

Doctors

Feelings

Good Day

Guy

Has Beens

Heart

Home

Instruction

Interesting

Jobs

Literature

Long

Love Is

Lying

Made

Malcontent

Manuals

Mean

Mistake

Novel

Pain

Past

People

Pet

Problem

Produce

Purity

Quality

Race

Real

Retirement

Romantic Love

Satisfied

Say Anything

Sight

Sky

Solitude

Sound

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Charles Baxter

Charles Baxter

[T]he astonishing purity of pain, how it will not be mixed with any other sensation.

A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unseen.

At least with pets, and for all I know, people too, intelligence and quick-wittedness have nothing to do with a talent for being loved, or being kind, nothing at all, less than nothing.

Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn’t have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.

Gainfully unemployed, very proud of it, too.

I don’t think that most women have to prove that they’re real women. You live long enough, you graduate to being real.

I feel quite at home writing short stories but nervous and anxious when writing novels, as if the bad time of consecutive failures might arise again.

I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.

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Topics by Charles Baxter

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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