Literary Birthday – 11 December – Ayelet Waldman

Happy Birthday, Ayelet Waldman, born 11 December 1964.

Ayelet Waldman – Eight Quotes On Writing and Reading

1. Forget discovery. Think about discipline. Writing is a habit — a physical habit. You can’t wait for the muse — you must just sit down at the same time every day and do your work. Remember Anne Lamott’s fabulous advice: All you need to do is write a shitty first draft. That’s it. The rest — good drafts, publication, etc. — will follow.
2. Jane Austen taught me that you can write elegantly and with great humour about traditionally female concerns. Marriage, family, love.
3. I have no rituals, but I have a phobia. I hate desks. I write in an armchair or on a couch, with my laptop on my lap. That’s probably why I have so many repetitive stress problems!
4.  Writing saved me when I left my job to be with my kids. It was the distraction I needed, the thing I had that was separate from the kids.
5. While I’m working I listen to minimalist classical music pretty much exclusively. Steve Reich is my favourite. There’s a piece called ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ that I will always listen to when I’m stuck on something.
6. I’ve always written about maternal ambivalence. It’s the subject that consumes me.
7. Names are important in terms of how you construct your characters’ identity, … But the First Amendment is more important than anything.
8. I only have one rule when it comes to fiction: I don’t read writers that are worse than me. And that leaves so much to read. I’ll never run out of books.

Ayelet Waldman is an American author. A former public defender, she started writing with her series of Mommy-Track mysteries. She is the author of the beautiful stand-alone novels, Daughter’s Keeper and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. She is married to author, Michael Chabon.

Source for image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ayelet_Waldman_2009.jpg

The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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