Quotes By Anne Tyler

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.

I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns.

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest.

My stories are never quite good enough.

I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.

I don't want to say I hear voices; well, actually I do hear voices, but I don't think it's supernatural. I think it's just that when characters are given enough texture and backbone, then lo and behold, they stand on their own.

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy.

It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

I save the best of myself for novels, and I believe it shows.

For me, writing something down was the only road out.

When I'm working on something, I proceed as if no one else will ever read it.

It's true that it's a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.

She worded it a bit strongly, but I do find myself more and more struck by the differences between the sexes. To put it another way: All marriages are mixed marriages.

I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward when it may be the last thing on earth they'd be good at.

If I waited till I felt like writing, I'd never write at all.

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

I remember leaving the hospital - thinking, 'Wait, are they going to let me just walk off with him? I don't know beans about babies! I don't have a license to do this.' We're just amateurs.

I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless?

For my own family, I would always choose the makeshift, surrogate family formed by various characters unrelated by blood.

I can never tell ahead of time which book will give me trouble - some balk every step of the way, others seem to write themselves - but certainly the mechanics of writing, finding the time and the psychic space, are easier now that my children are grown.

My decision to start a new one is just that, a decision, since I never get inspirations.

When I read, I'm purely a reader.

I forget a book as soon as I finish writing it, which is not always a good thing.

I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.

Not until the final draft do I force myself to remember that I'm going to have to think about how it will affect other people.

I've always enjoyed studying the small clues that indicate a particular class level.