"I do think one of the reasons I’m a writer is that we moved around so much when I was a child, and I was always the new kid. I was always in a new environment and trying to figure it out. I was always watching, trying to suss out what the social situation was, and where I might fit in, and who I was in this new place. We’re different people in different contexts; different aspects of our identities become more pertinent…"

Kirstin Valdez Quade Literature See all quotes by Kirstin Valdez Quade →

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“It has absolutely been romanticized; it shows up in literature and art. I think there is a sort of magic to it that draws people and yet I think the reality of it is that it's an extraordinarily complicated place.”

“I love the short story: I love its flexibility, its distillation of language, the pressure it exerts on the moment. A story demands that the reader look closely. And yet, despite the intensity and constraints, a story can be surprisingly capacious…”

“When I read, if I don’t know where a story is set, I always feel unmoored. The same is true for my writing: Until I place my story in a specific place, I can’t get my footing in the world…”

Resonant Thoughts

"We were a small group of college friends who kept together after our course was over, and continued to share the same views and the same ideals. Not one of us thought of his future career or financial…"

— Alexander Herzen

Politics1812–1870

#friendship

"The prospect of one’s own death, perhaps highlighted by a diagnosis of a dangerous or terminal condition, tends to focus the mind. But the deaths of others—relatives, friends, acquaintances, and somet…"

— David Benatar

Philosophy1966

#mind

"There were a lot of people living in his time who never did latch on to the idea that the curve of technological progress was not a flat slanting line like a diving board, but a geometrical curve like…"

— Theodore Sturgeon

Literature1918–1985

#time

"Remember we had a big debate about partial birth abortion? Well, here is a guy, who, in the Senate of Illinois, voted against a bill that was aimed at making sure that hospitals could no longer take b…"

— Alan Keyes

Politics1950

#life