I think I would explode in flames of irony if I were to option an idea that I was satirizing in a novel. Jess Walter Read Quote
The war in Iraq, the abuse of detainees, electronic eavesdropping, Guantanamo Bay – these things were all done on our behalf and they may turn out in the end to have created more terrorists. Jess Walter Read Quote
I doubt the terrorists saw 9/11 as a teaching opportunity. And we’re not really a culture geared to anything as humble as ‘learning.’ But I was disappointed in how quickly everyone wanted to get back to normal. It was as if we watched terrorism on TV for a while, then got bored and turned back to ‘American Idol.’ Jess Walter Read Quote
There was a time when self-promotion was considered so verboten, especially for authors. Jess Walter Read Quote
There are some people whose Twitter feeds are works of art. They intuitively understand how much of themselves to put out there. Jess Walter Read Quote
I remember the first time I went to Europe, I had someone take a picture of me there, so I could really see myself there. There’s a sense of being outside yourself, and I think celebrity allows us that too, to be outside ourselves. Jess Walter Read Quote
My poetry is the most disappointing thing for me that I’ve ever written. When I say I can write everything, I don’t say I can write everything well. Jess Walter Read Quote
My first book, about Ruby Ridge, was made into a miniseries on CBS in 1996, and since then, I’ve dabbled in Hollywood, pitched a few things, sold a couple of screenplays and a pilot that I wrote with a buddy from Spokane, flirted with seeing ‘Citizen Vince’ as a film, and most recently, adapted ‘The Financial Lives of the Poets’ as a script. Jess Walter Read Quote
I teach in M.F.A. programs now, and I think that’s a great way to become a novelist, but I mourn that Pete Dexter and Joan Didion’s route is maybe less likely because there are fewer of those jobs. I always liken it to playing piano in some great dive jazz bar. You didn’t pick the songs, you played what people asked for, but you got your chops. Jess Walter Read Quote