Literary Birthday – 9 November – Janet Fitch

Happy Birthday, Janet Fitch, born 9 November 1955.

Janet Fitch Quotes

1. I was an early reader and an all around fabulist. As a child, I lived completely in the world of my imagination—a far more real place to me than the so-called ‘real world’. I had a very difficult time telling the difference between what had actually happened and the things I made up.
2. When I was nine, I picked up a rock on the way to school and told the kids it was a piece of the true Blarney Stone and if they kissed it, they would have the gift of blarney forever and ever. They all kissed it—and I forgot I’d made it up, and kissed it too.
3. Notice everything. Love the senses. Ban the cliché. Hold nothing back.
4. If you’re stuck, try not to fight your way through it. Be kind to yourself. If you feel like you’re coming up on something that’s immobile, just stop. Leave it. It’s not worth it. Do an exercise. Write something else. Play music and write to the music. Irritating music works better than music I like, because it’s more stimulating; it doesn’t lull you. Find an interesting photo and write your way into the photograph. Often doing little things takes the pressure off, until you feel comfortable writing what you want to write.
5. Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In life, knowledge of poisons is essential. I’ve told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to.
6. Memory is the fourth dimension to any landscape.
7. There used to be a category called women’s fiction – meaning not too rude, not too much sex, a bit domestic and internal. Women have changed so much. We’re so varied. And we’ve become more interested in the same varied experience in fiction.
8. Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow.
9. Just because a poet said something didn’t mean it was true, only that it sounded good.

Read: Janet Fitch’s Top 10 Writing Tips

Janet Fitch is an American author and teacher of fiction writing. She is best known for her novels, the bestselling Oprah Book Club Choice White Oleander, and Paint It Black. Both were made into films. Her latest novels are The Revolution of Marina M, and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral. Additionally, she has written a young adult novel, Kicks, short stories, essays, articles, reviews, and contributed to anthologies. She teaches at the Community of Writers Summer Workshops, and in their online program. She taught creative writing for 14 years in the USC Master of Professional Writing program, as well as VCFA’s Writing and Publishing program, A Room of Her Own (AROHO), the UCLA Writer’s Program, and Pomona College.

Image: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar