Tobias Wolff

Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#flow #funny #hit #how #memory

Most of us don't live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#expression #fragmented #lend #live #lives

Of course it's why you want to become a writer - because you have the liberty to do that, but once you have the liberty you also have the obligation to do it. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#because #become #course #liberty #obligation

And you can tell the writers who do it - Robert Stone, for example, who with each new novel is doing something new. I appreciate that in other writers. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#doing #each #example #for example #i

That, for me, is a very important test of a young writer's commitment because most of them are going to have to continue doing that when they've finished the program. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#commitment #continue #doing #finished #going

The reader really has to step up to the plate and read a short story. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#read #reader #really #short #short story

The short story, on the other hand, is the perfect American form. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#form #hand #other #perfect #short

There are writers who do start doing the same thing again and again and almost inevitably fall into self-parody. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#almost #doing #fall #inevitably #into

There's a joy in writing short stories, a wonderful sense of reward when you pull certain things off. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#certain things #joy #off #pull #reward

When I was about 14 or 15 I decided to become a writer and never for a moment since have I wanted to do anything else. ↗

— Tobias Wolff

#anything #become #decided #else #i