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Dan Chaon Quotes


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Quotes by Dan Chaon

Showing 1-10 of 13 Quotes by Dan Chaon

Fiction is a particular kind of rhetoric, a way of thinking that I think can be useful in your life. It asks you to image the world through someone else's eyes, and it allows you to try to empathize with situations that you haven't actually experienced.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Actually Ask Else Empathize Experienced Eyes Fiction Image Kind Life Particular Rhetoric Situations Someone Think Thinking Through Try Useful Way World You Your I Think

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I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Built Mystery Naturally Say Short Short Stories Stories Them Would

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A novel requires a certain kind of world-building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn't see.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Also Certain Closure Hinges Kind Novel Reader Requires See Sense Short Short Story Story Ultimately Whereas You

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I'm certainly very influenced by what you would call 'contemporary headline horror,' stuff that is true crime or for one reason or another catches our attention in the media, those strange cases that we end up obsessing about. I'm always influenced by weird anecdotes and news.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: About Always Anecdotes Another Attention Call Cases Certainly Contemporary Crime End Headline Horror Influenced Media News Our Reason Strange Stuff Those True Up Very Weird Would You

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I guess I'm curious about how people process grief and how they process loss. And I'm also interested in the ways in which an event can have long-reaching consequences and a life over the course of years.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: About Also Consequences Course Curious Event Grief Guess How Interested Life Loss Over People Process Ways Which Years

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Imaginative empathy is one of the great gifts that humans have, and it means that we can live more than one life. We can picture what it would be like from another perspective.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Another Empathy Gifts Great Humans Imaginative Life Like Live Means More Perspective Picture Than Would

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People write fiction in their minds all the time - every time we read a 'human interest' news story, or a true crime tale, we find ourselves fascinated because we're trying to understand why people behave the way they do, why they make the choices they do, how we become who we become.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Because Become Behave Choices Crime Every Every Time Fascinated Fiction Find How Human Interest Make Minds News Ourselves People Read Story Tale Time True Trying Understand Way Who Why Write

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For the last few years I've tried to force myself to write at least one page every day, which doesn't sound like much but it's actually pretty hard to manage. Because I'm not allowed to do a make-up day. I can't do two pages the next day. The punishment for not completing my page is that I have to eat a vegetarian meal the next day.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Actually Allowed At Least One Because Completing Day Eat Every Every Day Few Force Hard Last Last Few Years Least Like Make-Up Manage Meal Much Myself Next Page Pages Pretty Punishment Sound Tried Two Vegetarian Which Write Years

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I usually have more than one thing I'm working on at once - I've been working on three different novels. When I get stuck on one, I hop back and forth.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Back Been Different Forth Get Hop More Novels Once One Thing Stuck Than Thing Three Working

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Our sense of self is a kind of construct. It is in some ways like a novel, and it's like a fabric of fictions that we patch together from memory.

~Dan Chaon

Topics: Construct Fabric Kind Like Memory Novel Our Patch Self Sense Some Together Ways

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Writer

Born: Unknown

Links

Find Dan Chaon on Amazon

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