Anthony Doerr Quotes

You don’t say, I’m going to be a writer when I grow up – at least I didn’t.

Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and the joy of them, because it only takes me three or four months to write, I can take more risks with them. It’s just less of your life invested.

My sister-in-law is a painter, and I’ll say, how long did it take you to paint that painting. She’ll say, It took me maybe three days, but it took me all my life to get the skills to paint that painting.

It wasn’t until I was 26 or 25 when I started sending work out to magazines.

It took me about three years to write About Grace. I wasn’t teaching two of those years, so I was working eight-hour days, five days a week. And it would include research and reading – it wasn’t just a blank page, laying down words.

I’ve been getting into Nick Drake lately, the folk singer. Sad, gorgeous stuff.