Quotes by Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis

After Birth is a fast-talking, opinionated, moody, funny, and slightly desperate account of the attempt to recover from having a baby. It is a romp through dangerous waters, in which passages of hilarity are shadowed by the dark nights of earliest motherhood, those months so tremulous with both new love and the despairing loss of one’s identity-to read it is an absorbing, entertaining, and thought-provoking experience.

Baby

Dark

Loss

Art is not in some far-off place.

Art

Art Is

Writers Block

As the writer, I may choose to ignore the emotional heart of the matter, and focus on details, and trust that the heart of the matter will be conveyed nevertheless.

Emotional

Focus

Heart

Because I’m not writing all the time (thank goodness), my mind is sometimes pleasantly blank.

Mind

Sometimes

Writing

But it is curious how you can see that an idea is absolutely true and correct and yet not believe it deeply enough to act on it.

Believe

Enough

Ideas

Do what you want to do, and don’t worry if it’s a little odd or doesn’t fit the market.

Littles

Want

Worry

Heart weeps. Head tries to help heart. Head tells heart how it is, again: You will lose the ones you love. They will all go. But even the earth will go, someday. Heart feels better, then. But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart. Heart is so new to this. I want them back, says heart. Head is all heart has. Help, head. Help heart.

Feel Better

Heart

Long

I am basically the sort of person who has stage-fright teaching. I kind of creep into a classroom. I’m not an anecdote-teller, either, although I often wish I were.

Anecdotes

Teaching

Wish

I am simply not interested, at this point, in creating narrative scenes between characters.

Character

Creating

Narrative

I attempt all day, at work, not to think about what lies ahead, but this costs me so much effort that there is nothing left for my work. I handle telephone calls so badly that after a while the switchboard operator refuses to connect me. So I had better say to myself, Go ahead and polish the silverware beautifully, then lay it out ready on the sideboard and be done with it. Because I polish it in my mind all day long—this is what torments me (and doesn’t clean the silver).

Long

Lying

Thinking

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.

Abstract

Affinity

After Hours

Allegory

Anecdotes

Answers

Art

Art Is

Asks

Baby

Believe

Boring

Brain

Breakup

Calling

Character

Choices

Classroom

Confused

Creating

Dark

Darkness

Deployment

Different

Distance

Doe

Dream

Editing

Editors

Emotional

English Words

Enough

Example

Feel Better

Feelings

Focus

Form

Fun

Giving Up

Glasses

Hard Work

Heart

Hurt

Ideas

Important

Indignant

Interesting

Jobs

Lasts

Levels

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 Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis

Art is not in some far-off place.

As the writer, I may choose to ignore the emotional heart of the matter, and focus on details, and trust that the heart of the matter will be conveyed nevertheless.

Because I’m not writing all the time (thank goodness), my mind is sometimes pleasantly blank.

But it is curious how you can see that an idea is absolutely true and correct and yet not believe it deeply enough to act on it.

Do what you want to do, and don’t worry if it’s a little odd or doesn’t fit the market.

I am basically the sort of person who has stage-fright teaching. I kind of creep into a classroom. I’m not an anecdote-teller, either, although I often wish I were.

I am simply not interested, at this point, in creating narrative scenes between characters.

Get Social with TBU

Topics by Lydia Davis

Popular Tools

The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

Menu

Menu