Barry Hannah Quotes

I've been criticized for not having perspective in the past and I thought that of myself many times but not there.

It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.

I learned that lesson a long time ago. When you write popular fiction you're going to get bashed by critics.

I've learned not to look at reviews. Early on, I did. I was always curious.

My self-absorption warms me; yours boils me.

Actually, writers have no business writing about their own works. They either wax conceited, saying things like: 'My brilliance is possibly most apparent in my dazzling short story, "The Cookiepants Hypotenuse."' Or else they get unbearably cutesy: 'My cat Ootsywootums has given me all my best ideas, hasn't oo, squeezums?

The scrutiny we give other people should be for ourselves.

It is a whole lot easier to see our problems in others than it is to see them in ourselves.

I made my share of mistakes. People can look at that as what not to do, and if they choose to make fun of it, that's fine. I can't control that. All I know is that I can control myself. And at that point in my life, I wasn't even able to do that.

Never forget what a man has said to you when he was angry. If he has charged you with anything, you had better look it up.

If you don't like me, there must be something wrong with you.

Pity you can't be present during my periodic fault-finding sessions with my image in the mirror!

There should be a rule against your own inner monologue throwing around that much sarcasm.

Fiction writers have their own world, and poets have their own world, and literary criticism has sort of passed over into cultural studies in the university, and so on. They seem more disconnected from each other than they did when I first began to write.

Judging others blocks me from inner peace

Somebody insults you and you feel anger. Don't miss this opportunity; try to understand why, why this anger. And don't make it a philosophical thing. Don't go to the library to consult about anger. Anger is happening to you -- it is an experience, a live experience. Focus your whole attention on it and try to understand why it is happening to you. It is not a philosophical problem. No Freud is to be consulted about it. There is no need! It is just foolish to consult somebody else while anger is happening to you. You can touch it. You can taste it. You will be burned by it.

I'm sorry you're so unhappy as a person that you feel the need to say things that you would never understand [to a paparazzi]

Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, In such a state as theirs, is downright treason.

One of the reasons some people get so angry with me is because I have the space now that a lot of others who think like me don't.

I had neither the good sense nor the good feeling to know that this was all my fault, and that if I had been easier with Joe, Joe would have been easier with me. I felt impatient of him and out of temper with him; in which condition he heaped coals of fire on my head.

If I were in the unenviable position of having to study my work my points of departure would be the "Naught is more real ..." and the "Ubi nihil vales ..." both already in Murphy and neither very rational.

A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige throughbeing mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.

When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.

We're not really good at knowing what we want, and we are quick to say 'this sucks'. That's where the opportunity lies.