Literary Birthday – 4 May – David Guterson

Happy Birthday, David Guterson, born 4 May 1956.

David Guterson Quotes

1. The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is to take it seriously, because to do it well is all-consuming.
2. Well, I think it’s extraordinarily fun to write, and I look forward to it every day, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s easy. There’s a difference between the two. It’s fun in the way all worthwhile things are fun – there’s difficulty attached to it. I think that a writer has to accept a certain amount of frustration. It’s inherent in the task, and you have to simply persevere. It’s part of the definition of the work.
3. Fiction is socially meaningful.
4. Everybody has a world, and that world is completely hidden until we begin to inquire. As soon as we do, that entire world opens to us and yields itself. And you see how full and complex it is.
5. Hemingway said the only way to write about a place is to leave it.
6. Writers shouldn’t underestimate the difficulty of what they’re doing, and they should treat it with great seriousness. You’re doing something that really matters, you’re telling stories that have an impact on other people and on the culture. You should tell the best stories you can possibly tell and put everything you’ve got into it.
7. When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you’re deathly afraid that you’re not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.
8. When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

David Guterson is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist. He is well-known as the author of the book Snow Falling on Cedars, which was adapted into a film. His other novels include East of the Mountains, Our Lady of the Forest, and The Other. He wrote the short story collection, The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind.

Source for quotes

Source for photo: Author’s website with permission

 by Amanda Patterson

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