Susan Choi Quotes

I don't think my first book was chick lit.

When 'Romeo and Juliet' came along, I fell in love with the way that it was written and how innocent and vulnerable it was and how different it was from 'True Grit.' I really liked that.

This is a feminist bookstore. There is no humor section.

I've read Proust and Stendhal. That keeps you in your place.

I am very fond of Edith Wharton. She's quite high brow but also a great storyteller. My favorite is 'The House of Mirth.' I also like 'The Reef.'

I worry that if I enjoy something - like the songs on 'Some Nights' are about wondering about who you are. I'm never quite sure and I'd hate to feel sort of content and get a good sense of who I am because if I know one thing, that's not me. I don't mind not necessarily being happy about it. And that's fine.

I kind of see myself as a cartoon that's on its way to becoming a real person that has to find that special amulet or mushroom to get to that next realm or level. I don't feel like anything is that tangible. It freaks me out, why I feel unhappy or conflicted and why that can change on a dime.

Sometimes I read a biography of some tempestuous artist and find myself longing for fireworks! booze! bloody fights!; I do think that life must be so much more thrilling when you're actively miserable.

Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.

'The Hunger Games' isn't for everybody. But neither is 'Anna Karenina.'

I like to read Octavia E. Butler's 'Wild Seed' over and over again. And J. California Cooper's 'The Wake of the Wind.' That one makes me cry from joy. I'll mourn - I'll actually mourn - and then I'll cry from joy. She's wonderful.

I'm a Jane Austen/Jane Eyre kind of girl.

The last romantic novel I think I read was 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles.'

By 30, I was separated from my husband, and I clearly remember sitting in my lovely office with a magnificent view, staring at a very lucrative pay stub, and bursting into tears because I was just miserable. So I had to make a decision: Keep following my plan, or be honest with myself and search for my true passion.

I didn't want to be behind a desk. I didn't want to do a normal job. I had made my mind up. I became despondent prematurely. I had my mid-life crisis when I was 16. I suppose I'd agree with that. But acting has helped me develop a lot in my private life.

I hated the fact that I had to read 'Moby-Dick' as a senior in high school.

I was an incredibly lonely, very alienated teenager.

It wasn't a leap for me to go from not wanting to be in my body as a teenager, not wanting to be in my house, to thinking, 'What would happen if I had disappeared?' And then going from writing scenes of angry kids to thinking a little more about the parents and what their lives would be like.

Most applicants to creative writing programs submit stories about the angst of their suburban childhoods.

I think even great writers only write two books that you might like. When I think of my touchstone writers like Saul Bellow, I think of 'Henderson the Rain King.' With Don DeLillo, I think of 'Libra.'

In reality, I was drowning in negativity. I was stuck playing a part, too afraid to change, too afraid of losing my readers if I suddenly stopped being so mean.

Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure.

I'm a very old-fashioned novelist. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply.

Nothing had happened yet in my life except the need to get out of it.

When I drank, I'd be happy for 10 minutes. When I got high, I'd feel a sense of nothingness for about an hour. But in the end, my negative emotions always came rushing back.