Mary Gaitskill Quotes

When I'm writing fiction, I'm sort of interested by the fact that somehow or other I can have the feeling of actually seeing things through someone else's eyes.

I don't have to live the lives of my characters to write about them. It's about really putting yourself in their shoes.

I think the moment you're writing about somebody who's not exactly you, then the challenge is all equal.

As I write, I try to be the character.

It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

A good journalist, as you know, is a great listener. And so's a good writer. And I got to listen to people for almost 20 years. That serves me well, I hope, when I try to understand how a character might be feeling, or how they might react.

I normally write in the first person, and my narrators are as real to me as any of the people I have worked with. They live and breathe in my imagination.

I'm at the mercy of whatever character comes into my head.

I always find stuff in my characters to relate to.

You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you're a writer.

I spend a lot of time with my characters.

I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.

I strongly believe that the art of the novel works best when the writer identifies with whoever he or she is writing about. Novels in the end are based on the human capacity, compassion, and I can show more compassion to my characters if I write in a first person singular.

I try not to identify too strongly with any of my characters. I like to stand back and see them objectively. I think this is why I often use boys instead of girls, just in case I get too close and lose the overall picture.

Writing is like a rollercoaster ride for me, an adventure. I love exploring the world through 'playing' people who are absolutely nothing like me.

Part of being a fiction writer is being able to imagine how someone else is thinking and feeling. I think I've always been good at that.

When you have a character to work with, you carry them around in a strange way - they make you look at the world in a different way.

I want to have compassion for my characters - I feel like I am the characters when I'm writing them.

Once I started to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I just let them start talking.

What I love about my work is that I'm forced to look through my character's eyes.

My job is to see the world through the character's eyes.

You can start imagining all kinds of things characters would feel, but you have to have a sense of whether those imaginings might be right.

I learned to write from different points of view and not just something I would say.

I care about actors, and I understand them in a very personal way. I'm not saying every writer has to do that, but in my case, it's been helpful. I can put myself into the scene and think, 'What would it be like to act this?' Any writer who's really good probably does that to some extent.

When I write, I try to become different characters.