I had this dream that I was going to come to New York and be a writer. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
Reading was not just an escape or a Band-Aid; it was a deep form of feeling seen and recognized, and being able to see and recognize other kindred spirits. My dad was a writer, too, which also likely had something to do with that. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
In graduate school, I was a student of E.L. Doctorow, and he had us read ‘Moby-Dick’ in a week. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
The central question driving literary aesthetics in the age of the iPad is no longer ‘How should novels be?’ but ‘Why write novels at all?’ Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
I respect Billy Joel, but I’m not a guy who’s gonna sit down and listen to the entire ‘Essential Billy Joel.’ Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
I fell in love with New York at some indeterminate point in my early years. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
Any character that can’t be kept straight, to me, isn’t a character who should be in the book – you know, anyone not vivid enough to have a claim on my attention. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
I think several generations of my family had novels in the drawer. You know the montage in ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ where each character has produced some sort of minor work? It was like having a magician in the household. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
I have this weird tropism for islands. Take me to an island as far from New York as I can possibly go. Garth Risk Hallberg Read Quote
