Chuck Klosterman Quotes

I write from my life, my experience. I'm selfish that way.

I started writing because I found I could spend more time in my own imagination by doing that than I could by reading.

I guess I could say that I pursue questions that interest me in ways that interest me on the page, but that's awfully vague.

I do not think writers ought ever to sit down and think they must write about some cause, or theme, or something. If they write about their own experiences, something true is going to emerge.

All writing is an act of self-exploration. Even a grocery list says something about you; how much more does a novel say?

Everything is autobiography, even if one writes something that is totally objective. The fact that it's a subject that seizes you makes it autobiographical.

For me, writing essays, prose and fiction is a great way to be self-indulgent.

When I write for myself, I think about myself and draw from my own experience.

I write books I'd enjoy reading, I'm the reader standing behind my shoulder.

I write my books never thinking of an actor.

I'm not interested in creating a self-aggrandizing home base for myself, for my artistic foibles and interests.

Long ago, when I was in higher secondary school in Delhi, I read an essay by George Orwell in which he said there was a voice in his head that put into words everything he was seeing. I realised I did that, too, or maybe I started doing it in imitation.

Some people think memoirs should be held to a perfect journalistic standard. Some people don't. Obviously I don't. My goal was never to create or to write a perfect journalistic standard of my life. It was always to be as literature.

The first audience that you have when writing a book is you.

I tell the stories that are of interest to me.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry - writing at writing.

I think all writing is necessarily autobiographical to a greater or lesser extent, and the less it tries to be confessional, the more likely it is that you're somehow sneaking the things you need to say in there.

After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy.

Each time I write a new piece, whether a novel, a picture book, a speech or anything, really, it has so much to do with what I'm going through personally or a problem I'm trying to work out. When I wrote my novel 'Baby,' my three children had all just gone out the door.

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

'Dreamsongs' allows me to show the scope of my writing - with personal commentary that puts the works in context and includes some autobiographical details intended to reveal how each piece came to be, what it represents, and how it has formed, or been informed by, my philosophy of writing.

Actually, that's one of the things I was thinking about writing a story about me, loosely based or autobiographical. I just don't want to be like some people that are in their twenties and writing autobiographies.

Because of the wonderfully positive response to 'Life's That Way,' I am considering writing some more autobiographical stuff - maybe another book. I don't know. It doesn't help that I'm lazy.

When I am writing anything in general, I just want to tell the story that exists in my head; I don't try to write a parable or make a point.

Humanity is a failed experiment, but I think I'm God and I'd like to start over. I don't want to die, I just want everyone else to. I certainly would not be lonely. It would be exciting never having to listen to another person again but just my own self droning on and on. That's why I write a blog. And I read it, too.