Literary Birthday – 8 September – Ann Beattie

Happy Birthday, Ann Beattie, born on 8 September 1947.

Ann Beattie Quotes

1. Clouds are poems, and the most moving poems linger on the blackboard so long, written in cursive so lovely, they also exist inside our fingertips. We never really erase them at the end of the lesson.
2. I’m always amazed by my friends who were reading Samuel Beckett back when I was reading Wonder Woman. I didn’t think about books much in those days. I took a creative-writing course in high school, but only because it allowed me to skip gym.
3. You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story.
4. It took me years and years to realise a very simple thing, which is that when you write fiction you’re raising questions, and a lot of people think you’re playing a little game with them and that actually you know the answers to the questions.
5. Quite often my narrator or protagonist may be a man, but I’m not sure he’s the more interesting character, or if the more complex character isn’t the woman.
6. I didn’t realise the asterisks were so prominent until I put together the stories for Park City, and I thought, When did you start using the asterisk? When did you start using the colon?
7. I only have a certain bag of tricks. And that’s why little things, like ­punctuation, make such a big difference.
8. Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.
9. I know that stories don’t really have conclusions. It’s only an appropriate moment for stopping.

Ann Beattie is an American novelist and short story writer. Her fiction often explores relationships, change, and the gap between generations. Having come of age in the 1960s, she often writes about characters who struggle to adjust to the changing values of later generations. Beattie’s short stories have appeared in five O. Henry Award collections, The Best American Short Stories, and The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She received the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story. Her books include The Accomplished Guest: Stories, The State We’re In: Maine Stories, Walks With Men: Fiction, and Onlookers: Stories. Her latest novel is A Wonderful Stroke of Luck. Beattie was the Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Image: Encyclopædia Britannica

by Amanda Patterson
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