One of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real life by writing about them. Tobias Wolff
We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are. Tobias Wolff
There’s a joy in writing short stories, a wonderful sense of reward when you pull certain things off. Tobias Wolff
I made sense of those memories through imagination, and giving it a fictional shape. Tobias Wolff
I do write, as indeed most writers do, about things that have gone wrong. There’s not much of a story if things have gone right. Tobias Wolff
The choices we make tend to narrow down a myriad of opportunities to just a few, and those choices tend to reinforce themselves in whatever direction we’ve started to go, including the wrong direction. Tobias Wolff
There’s something to be said for changing course if you’re about to drive your ship onto the shoals. Tobias Wolff
Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say. Tobias Wolff
Writing is one art where people fool themselves into thinking it’s easier than it is. Tobias Wolff
Plagiarism is a sort of psychological annihilation and appropriation of the other. It’s very atavistic, in a way. It’s like eating someone’s brain or their heart to take on their qualities. Tobias Wolff