Jennifer Egan Quotes

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

I can't imagine not being in a phase where I'm trying to understand something or create something. That's the essence of life.

Writing is an incessant process of discovery.

Poetry helps me understand who I am. It helps me understand the world around me. But above all, what poetry has taught me is the fact that I need to embrace mystery in order to be completely human.

I may attempt a novel. I think that no matter what you write, it requires being honest with oneself, and you have to pull yourself out of the whirlwind of daily life.

A writer needs a life of introspection.

Victorville gave me opportunity to go inside and explore my imagination a bit.

My favourite genre lies inside myself, and as I follow my favourite stories, characters and images, it sums up to a certain genre. So at times even I have to try to guess which genre a film will be after I've made it.

Live life to the full, and become more curious every day. The more you find out about life, the richer your music-making will be.

The part of the process that's exciting to me is feeling like I'm in a place I've never been before, in every way. Without that, I don't know if I'd be a writer.

We read to find life, in all its possibilities.

Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle.

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

Writing is the act of discovery.

What inspires me most to write is the act of traveling.

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

'Birdman' came from a very beautiful side of me, from a part of honesty and surrender about things.

The old adage is, 'Write what you know.' But if you only do that, your work becomes claustrophobic. I say, 'Write what you want to know.'

The more I see and know about life, the more ideas I have and the more I want to make art.

The gateways to wisdom and learning are always open, and more and more I am choosing to walk through them. Barriers, blocks, obstacles, and problems are personal teachers giving me the opportunity to move out of the past and into the Totality of Possibilities.

I don't think you can approach any piece of art with boundaries or rules. I think respect is a very important thing, but I also think what we discover along the way is really important.

The reason you want to act is to continue to explore every different part of the human psyche.

I like taking a path into new country, and I always take the darker path. Not because it's dark, but because there's a secret there that you can share when you get out. That's what I liked as a kid. That's how I approach my work. With a face like mine, it's lucky I have a heart that likes that.

What I write is very personal, but not autobiographical. It's more 'thematically personal' - what's up in my life in terms of themes at the moment.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.