Kayla Tausche Quotes

I find that short stories are almost like palate cleansers or brain cleansers.

The writers of books are companions in one's life and, as such, are often more interesting than other companions.

I'll take a certain concern of my own or a situation and try to frame it around a fictional story, but sometimes just straight-up autobiographical songs work well, and sometimes a story is better. I like stories. I like to hear them. I don't think there are enough of them in songs anymore.

I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.

All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It's fiction's business to ask them.

I have always loved reading, so was interested in the literary world, and took many literary portraits.

I never fantasized or invented a thing, not one thing. I knew every single thing I ever wrote about.

I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.

Basically, I think of fiction and non-fiction as different ways of engaging with the world. You reach a point where you feel you have said all you possibly can, in reportage or a review essay or a reflection on history, which 'From the Ruins of Empire' was.

I write for the same reason I read: to find out what's going to happen.

Basically, I just write whatever story grabs me rather than considering the genre.

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.

All novels must be autobiographical because I am the only material that I know. All of the characters are me. But at the same time, a novel is never autobiographical even if it describes the life of the author. Literary writing is a completely different medium.

I read very widely, both non-fiction and fiction, so I don't think there's a single writer who influences me.

Novels for me are how I find out what's going on in my own head. And so that's a really useful and indeed critical thing to do when you do as many of these other things as I do.

The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective.

I think you can do a lot with fiction, and in some cases you can say even more in fiction than you can in straight-up documentary journalism.

Fiction isn't memoir and memoir isn't fiction.

I've found that using historical material and being rooted in historical material is liberating because I always think to myself, 'Well, this actually happened, and this is fantastic!' That's why I don't like fantasy, in a way. Because it's sort of in emptiness.

It turned out I really didn't like journalism. I wanted to make up stories, not cover real events.

Sometimes I - I try not to read too many fiction or novels.

I write about my life and my own experience, but I also write about things that I have no knowledge of whatsoever.

I'm always interested in storytelling and whatever form that comes in.

There is this assumption that much of what I write is about my life, and that simply is not true.

I'm an avid reader. Novels, non-fiction, comics, it doesn't matter. Best way in the world to feed your head.