Julianna Baggott Quotes.
The poem has to bear the weight with image, language… the screenplay with dialogue, plot.
If men are paid/praised more than women for the same work than it always pays to allow the man to have more freedom to pour himself into his work – think of athletes, actors over the age of 28, lawyers, accountants, college deans.
As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently – as if whispering it into one ear – and to know the characters intimately.
Omission is a sin only if, in the process of deceiving, you forget the truth. Lying is a sin only if, in the process, the lie becomes the only truth.
The basic rule of storytelling is ‘show, don’t tell.’
I’m a woman, but I’ve been a sexist, too.
What does it mean to be Catholic and not a Catholic? I feel adrift, homeless. My Catholic imagination allows me to see the soul as a lit breath, seeking the divine. It persists.
The truth is that for those 86 long years when the Red Sox went without a World Series win, fans were not only in a recession, but trapped in a longstanding, deeply entrenched sports depression.
Weakness, like not being able to bury the past. Weakness, like not giving up hope when you know you should.
I prefer true over happy now.
People know the difference between good and evil in their hearts-if they search them. Religions twist good and evil. Their differences are the kind that need to be taught because they aren’t natural.
And I know I’m supposed to feel guilty for wanting people to buy my books… and books in general? Novels and poetry, they belong to the realm of art. How dirty of us to try to hawk art! But, after a decade of hand-wringing and apologies, I can’t quite muster the guilt anymore.
I am politically pro-choice, but personally pro-life. I have my faith but refuse to force it on the world at large – especially this world, so brutal and unjust. I cannot make these wrenching personal life and death decisions for others – nor do I believe they should be made by a church run by childless men.
I prefer a cluttered workspace.
I’m a writer of faith who worries about the intolerance of religion. I look at the past and fear we haven’t learned from it. I believe that humanity is capable of evil as well as great acts of courage and goodness. I have hope. Deep down, I believe in the human spirit, although sometimes that belief is shaken.
Basically if you burst into my office the walls themselves will flutter as if alive – maybe that’s the reason for all the wings in ‘Pure.’
Don’t shame the young for releasing their pent-up fear.
Some of the best work done to combat the Republicans has been wit and humor.
No matter what losses happen in a given season, the Red Sox always have next year.
I’m not the kind of writer who’s able to block out the world around me. I’m mindful of our own haves and have-nots, how our culture often blames and punishes the have-nots. I worry about our precarious economic and political climate.
A good novel doesn’t just transcend the boundaries of its target market – it knows nothing about target markets.
Love is a luxury. It’s something that people are allowed to indulge in when they’re not simply trying to survive and keep other people alive.
Writing stories is the habit of lying put to good use.
Try to think of writing as a gift – more complexly put: it is the curse and the cure.
If you look at the world one way, it takes from you – it’s a thief of time, energy, creative mojo. But if you look at the world another way, it gives you an endless supply of motivation.
If I’d learned nothing else, it was this: If you want to be a great writer, be a man. If you can’t be a man, write like one.
Writers aren’t born properly labeled so it is hard to know one when one appears.
I didn’t start writing so that I could more deeply know myself. I was bored of myself, my life, my childhood, my hometown. I started writing as a way to know others, to get away from myself.
Sometimes the only way to fix a mistake- is to make it twice.
I’ve never thought there was anything I could hope to get by praying for it.
