A short story collection can be as exciting as a novel. It is a real complete experience, like when you listen to a real good recording, a Beatles record, and there are so many good songs. David Means Read Quote
I think most short story writers, at one time or another, over the course of several books, naturally skirt near the edge of one genre or another. David Means Read Quote
The wonderful thing about being an American writer is you’ve got this vastness to draw from. David Means Read Quote
Every interaction with another person involves a dance of expectation, even when you’re just passing someone in the street. Inside those moments – however brief they may be – there is a kind of anticipatory silence. David Means Read Quote
I think that those moments before a performer plays are the moments when the potential for something to be created may – or may not – arrive. David Means Read Quote
The short story is kind of a precision tool. It allows me a certain type of freedom to go in and out of the American landscape, without having to commit myself to a full-length novel. I find a lot of novels out there very boring. David Means Read Quote
I don’t want to be a commentator of my own work. If you’ve written the story, you’ve said what you want to say. David Means Read Quote
There’s a huge distance between who I am as a regular person and what takes place in my fiction. David Means Read Quote
Novels often thin themselves out to a watery hue – some even start that way – and at times seem to only ride along the surface of things, giving us what we already know, reporting the news that is just news. David Means Read Quote