Quotes by Dan Chaon

Dan Chaon

A lot of people work really diligently to maintain a “profile” in the writing world, but that’s so hard, and so boring most of the time. So you just keep doing what you like to do, I guess, and try to enjoy it.

People

Trying

Writing

A novel requires a certain kind of world building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn’t see. I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them.

Kind

Mystery

World

A novel requires a certain kind of world-building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn’t see.

Kind

Stories

World

At a certain point, you must be able to slip loose. At a certain point, you found that you had been set free. You could be anyone, he thought. You could be anyone.

Able

Certain

Found

Even when our death is imminent, we carry the image of ourselves moving forward, alive, into the future.

Alive

Moving

Moving Forward

Fiction is a particular kind of rhetoric, a way of thinking that I think can be useful in your life. It asks you to image the world through someone else’s eyes, and it allows you to try to empathize with situations that you haven’t actually experienced.

Eye

Thinking

Trying

Fiction is fun because you get to steal an identity and try to make it authentic.

Fun

Identity

Trying

I also have just my own limits about stuff. I’m not interested in writing graphically about sexual assault for example. I feel like the stuff that I’m fascinated by is the stuff that’s part of the public imagination of what horror is. The bleakness is a different issue. I think that just stems from my personality. I wish that I offered a little more glimmer of hope sometimes.

Imagination

Thinking

Writing

I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down – it feels fatalistic in some way.

Knowing

Worry

Writing

I feel like I go back and forth between being fairly fatalistic and really more hopeful about the possibilities of things changing. And will see how that goes in this election cycle. That will probably strongly affect how fatalistic I am.

Election

Hopeful

Things Change

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Able

Acting

Adventure

Alive

Becoming

Being In Love

Block

Book

Car

Cartoon

Certain

Character

Cheating

Class

Community

Compassion

Dark

Differences

Different

Dream

Drunk

Effort

Egyptian Pyramids

Election

Empathy

Essence

Eye

Found

Fun

Ghost Stories

Giving

Heartbreaking

Hopeful

Hops

Horror Stories

Identity

Imagination

Kids

Kind

Knowing

Letting Go

Life

Littles

Long

Love

Love You

Lure

Lying

Maybe Love

Mean

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Quotes by Dan Chaon

Dan Chaon

A lot of people work really diligently to maintain a “profile” in the writing world, but that’s so hard, and so boring most of the time. So you just keep doing what you like to do, I guess, and try to enjoy it.

A novel requires a certain kind of world building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn’t see. I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them.

A novel requires a certain kind of world-building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn’t see.

At a certain point, you must be able to slip loose. At a certain point, you found that you had been set free. You could be anyone, he thought. You could be anyone.

Even when our death is imminent, we carry the image of ourselves moving forward, alive, into the future.

Fiction is a particular kind of rhetoric, a way of thinking that I think can be useful in your life. It asks you to image the world through someone else’s eyes, and it allows you to try to empathize with situations that you haven’t actually experienced.

Fiction is fun because you get to steal an identity and try to make it authentic.

I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down – it feels fatalistic in some way.

I feel like I go back and forth between being fairly fatalistic and really more hopeful about the possibilities of things changing. And will see how that goes in this election cycle. That will probably strongly affect how fatalistic I am.

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Topics by Dan Chaon

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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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