Literary Birthday – 3 September – Alison Lurie

Alison Lurie was born on 3 September 1926 and died on 3 December 2020.

Alison Lurie Quotes

1. You can’t write well with only the nice parts of your character, and only about nice things. And I don’t want even to try anymore. I want to use everything, including hate and envy and lust and fear.
2. There’s a rule, I think. You get what you want in life, but not your second choice too.
3. Throughout my whole adult life I’ve written fiction and nonfiction. And when I can’t think of a good idea for a novel, I’ll write about something else that I’m interested in. And I’ve got lots of interests.
4. As one went to Europe to see the living past, so one must visit Southern California to observe the future.
5. The world is not prepared for there to be so many old people in it. We have to fight that. I think people expect your life to shrink as you get older. They don’t want you to take up too much room.
6. So now we’re being governed by a whole lot of people who are either weak and foolish, or cynical liars. Or a little of each.
7. I always revise everything four or five times.

Alison Lurie was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs. Lurie wrote 11 novels featuring domestic and academic black comedy. Her books feature a cast of connected characters who often move from the sidelines to centre stage. Some characters are reassessed or redeemed when they appear again, while others return as adults after first appearing as children. Lurie successfully combined careers as a novelist and academic. Her books were popular in both America and Britain. She once described her work as using an English literary style to explore American situations. She taught literature, folklore, humour, and writing at Cornell University from 1969 to 2006. She later became the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of American Literature Emerita. She received Guggenheim and Rockefeller grants, as well as honorary doctorates from Oxford University and the University of Nottingham. She was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Source for Image: Author’s website

by Amanda Patterson
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