Quotes by Walter Kirn

Walter Kirn

‘ve always defined a truly alluring story as a journey we’re not equipped to take ourselves with a person we’re tempted but afraid to emulate. Impostor narratives are exactly that. When they end in disaster, as Clark’s did, or as Gatsby’s did, we can congratulate ourselves for our own wisdom. We can also experience, safely, at no cost, the terrible thrill of radical self-invention, of trading who we are for who we might be.

Journey

Narrative

Self

A writer has a use for his experiences that most civilians simply don’t; he or she discerns material in situations that others simply live through. Perhaps there are some who disapprove of this, but without this double consciousness, literature would not get made at all.

Consciousness

Literature

Use

A writer turns his life into material, and if you’re in his life, he uses yours, too.

Materials

Turns

Use

At the beginning of a novel, a writer needs confidence, but after that what’s required is persistence. These traits sound similar. They aren’t. Confidence is what politicians, seducers and currency speculators have, but persistence is a quality found in termites. It’s the blind drive to keep on working that persists after confidence breaks down.

Persistence

Quality

Sound

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it’s someone else’s witch being hunted.

Hunts

Long

Witch

Given Loughner’s obsession with meaninglessness and language, maybe Foucault & Derrida deserve some fault here, too.

Faults

Language

Obsession

I disagree that Blood Will Out is a memoir in the conventional sense. It’s the story of a relationship, primarily, not an individual. The “me” in the book is a specialized version of me, the person who Clark manipulated and fooled. I could cover the same years of my life from an entirely different perspective in another book, by concentrating on my experience as a husband, say. But I was selective. I focused on my duping.

Blood

Book

Husband

I preferred that my bad dreams be vague.

Bad Dream

Dream

Vague

I still believe in love. I always will. It’s my blessing and my burden.

Believe

Blessing

Burden

I’ve been told my old city possesses a ‘thriving arts scene,’ whatever that is; personally, I think artists should lie low and stick to their work, not line-dance through the parks.

Art

Lying

Thinking

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Age

Alternatives

Apologizing

Art

Attachment

Bad Dream

Beautiful

Believe

Blessing

Blood

Book

Burden

Choices

Commerce

Consciousness

Critics

Devotion

Dream

Dumb

Faces

Faults

Games

Hate

Hunts

Husband

Interesting

Journey

Kissing

Language

Lessons

Levels

Lines

Literature

Long

Love Is

Lying

Materials

Matter

Mean

Media

Moving

Narrative

Obsession

Painkillers

People

Persistence

Powerful

Quality

Real

Self

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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The Autobiography

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The Behaviour Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Walter Kirn

Walter Kirn

A writer has a use for his experiences that most civilians simply don’t; he or she discerns material in situations that others simply live through. Perhaps there are some who disapprove of this, but without this double consciousness, literature would not get made at all.

A writer turns his life into material, and if you’re in his life, he uses yours, too.

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it’s someone else’s witch being hunted.

Given Loughner’s obsession with meaninglessness and language, maybe Foucault & Derrida deserve some fault here, too.

I preferred that my bad dreams be vague.

I still believe in love. I always will. It’s my blessing and my burden.

I’ve been told my old city possesses a ‘thriving arts scene,’ whatever that is; personally, I think artists should lie low and stick to their work, not line-dance through the parks.

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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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