Jonathan Evison Quotes & Sayings

So often when we historicize material, we use this big wide-angle lens. — Jonathan Evison

Why not get a job in West Yellow Stone selling buffalo turds? I could make clocks out of them. — Jonathan Evison

I just need to believe that we're not in some form of stasis, that we can try to be whoever we want to be. We probably won't get there, but we might get a little bit closer, you know? — Jonathan Evison

First, I'm going to give you all the Copperfield crap, and I'm not going to apologize for any of it, not one paragraph, so if you're not interested in how I came to see the future, or how I came to understand that the biggest truth in my life was a lie, or, for that matter, how I parlayed my distaste for hot dogs into an '84 RX-7 and a new self-concept, do us both a favor, and just stop now. — Jonathan Evison

As a result of manifest destiny, we gutted our resources. — Jonathan Evison

Bob has a new strategy. Either he's taken some vacation time, or he's logging heavy miles on the weekends. He's spending his money on postage in recent weeks. They arrive almost daily - postcards from the Utah hinterlands, from all corners of the Industry State; from Logan and Monticello, from Cedar City and Provo. — Jonathan Evison

I really believe in challenging myself, pushing myself to new places. — Jonathan Evison

My parents divorced after 25 years of marriage. — Jonathan Evison

When I started caregiving, I was not on very firm ground. My first marriage had dissolved. I was working at an ice-cream stand in my thirties. I learned that when you don't have anything to give, that's when you really give, and then you get back so much more. — Jonathan Evison

We are born haunted, he said, his voice weak, but still clear. Haunted by our fathers and mothers and daughters, and by people we don't remember. We are haunted by otherness, by the path not taken, by the life unlived. We are haunted by the changing winds and the ebbing tides of history. And even as our own flame burns brightest, we are haunted by the embers of the first dying fire. But mostly, said Lord Jim, we are haunted by ourselves. — Jonathan Evison

My neediness is not a hole to be filled but something beneath the skin scratching to get out. — Jonathan Evison

I write as a matter of need - seven books and God knows how many short stories before anyone published me. — Jonathan Evison

Fobbit is fast, razor sharp, and seven kinds of hilarious. Thank you, Mr. Abrams, for the much needed salve
it feels good to finally laugh about Iraq. Fobbit deserves a place alongside Slaughterhouse Five and Catch-22 as one of our great comic novels about the absurdity of war. — Jonathan Evison

If I walk into a place, a party, say, and there's a bookshelf, I immediately gravitate toward it. Unless there's a bar. But even then, it's only a matter of a few rounds before I make my way to the bookshelf. If there are good books on it, I may never leave the spot all night. Anybody I really want to talk to is going to make his or her way to that bookshelf sooner or later, anyway, right? Books are a nexus. They start conversations, and they continue conversations, and they make people better conversationalists. I have not found this to be the case with Iron Chef, or even alcohol. — Jonathan Evison

He prayed for clear skies and discovery, for danger and heartache and laughter, for a life beyond fear, a life that got bigger, really got bigger, as it receded. — Jonathan Evison

I remember us saying that we liked small houses, that proximity engendered closeness in a family. That nobody should be raised by a nanny or in day care. I remember us saying that time, not money, was the greatest resource. That everything would be all right. That the universe would provide. That belief was a force more powerful than gravity itself. — Jonathan Evison

I'm not in the business of meddling with people's destinies - and yes, my characters are real people to me. They have histories and thoughts and yearnings and hurts and misgivings and pleasures that don't belong to me. — Jonathan Evison

Most everything that happens to me in any significant sense finds its way into my fiction. — Jonathan Evison

People really do change. Don't let anyone tell you differently. That the future does not conform to the past is not the exception, but the rule. — Jonathan Evison

I know I've lost my mind. But I'm not concerned, because it's the first thing I've lost in a long time that actually feels good. — Jonathan Evison

Homesteading is gone. — Jonathan Evison

For me, an ideal novel is a dialogue between writer and reader, both a collaborative experience and an intimate exchange of emotions and ideas. The reader just might be the most powerful tool in a writer's arsenal. — Jonathan Evison

There are holes in our lives that can never be filled - not really, not ever. — Jonathan Evison

You have to smile, if you expect anybody to smile back. — Jonathan Evison

The Mathematician's Shiva is a brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history, and humor, not to mention a cast of delightfully quirky characters, and a math lesson or two; all together, a winning equation! When Rojstaczer writes about mathematics, you'd think he was writing about poetry. — Jonathan Evison

You have to find hope. Hope is such a shape shifter. You tend to look in the rearview mirror for hope, but when it's gone, you have to look forward. You have to get in the van and keep driving on. — Jonathan Evison

Can we really be whoever we want to be, now that we've collected all that we are? — Jonathan Evison

Forest is the backbone of the O-fers. He pitches, bats cleanup, collects the fees, makes all the pre game reminder calls, fills out the lineup card, and is the undisputed (though unspoken) team captain. Few things inspire like watching Forest round third in the late innings with a head full of steam and two bad knees, his spare tire heaving violently beneath his snug jersey, just as the second basemen is fielding the relay. "Run, Forest, run!" We yell, from the dugout. It never gets old. — Jonathan Evison

Maybe a theme that touches all of my work is people reinventing themselves. — Jonathan Evison

Sometimes you lie, Forest. Sometimes its the right thing to do."
"I don't believe that, Ben."
"And why is that?"
"Because it always catches up with you."
"It doesn't, not always."
"It does."
"Bullshit."
"It's the truth, Ben."
"No, Forest, it's another kind of lie. If Lizzie draws you a picture of a catfish and it looks like a big hairy turd, what do you tell her? That it looks like shit? That you could draw a better fucking catfish with a crayon up your asshole? No, Forest, you tell her it's the most beautiful catfish you ever saw, don't you? Of course you do. Truth's a slippery slope sometimes. — Jonathan Evison

I never wanted to be anything but a writer, and I never let go of it. — Jonathan Evison

I usually write in my underwear, with a space heater running full blast, and three dogs sleeping at me feet. — Jonathan Evison

In writing, I've found, playing it safe and familiar is no way to energize anybody. — Jonathan Evison

I'm a DIY kinda guy. — Jonathan Evison

I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy. — Jonathan Evison

I'll never stop caring. But the thing about caring is, it's inconvenient. Sometimes you've got to give when it makes no sense to at all. Sometimes you've got to give until it hurts. — Jonathan Evison

The jocks that used to stuff me into a locker when I was a punk rocker are my best buddies now. — Jonathan Evison

Limited points of view let the writer dispense - and the reader gather - information from various corners of the story. It all becomes a kind of dance, with the writer guiding the reader through the various twists and turns. The challenge is keeping readers in step, while still managing to surprise. — Jonathan Evison

It was quiet and smooth -a gazelle trapped in the body of a wart hog. — Jonathan Evison

A man's destiny is not in the eyes of others. It's in his own. And that, my young friend, is as good as any bank note. — Jonathan Evison

After 20 years of writing in basically a vacuum, I love being part of a community. I've vetted other writers' contracts for them and do publicity for free just because I like a book. Some people think of it as hubris or careerism, but I love to champion books. You can't use your whole sphere of influence just to help yourself. — Jonathan Evison

But you can see it, Harriet, a look in his eyes, an alertness, as if somewhere behind the disease, behind the scar tissue, behind the fog of disassociation, Bernard is all there, he's just lost his ability to communicate. Like somebody turned off his volume. You're certain he can see everything that is transpiring with crystal clarity, and he can't do a goddamn thing about it. — Jonathan Evison

It's a cruel process, aging. Take my advice, dear, maintain your independence as long as possible. — Jonathan Evison

It's not easy getting old, you know. Things become a lot less clear. — Jonathan Evison

Too many writers of fiction don't give the reader enough credit. — Jonathan Evison

I've been blessed with an optimistic disposition, I think. — Jonathan Evison

He threw himself headlong at a job as if were he to stop the job would throw itself headlong back at him. — Jonathan Evison

Reading is, at its best, not an escape; it is genuine experience. A novel is not a monologue, but a conversation, a collaboration between writer and reader, an invaluable exchange of human conditions. — Jonathan Evison

I've been thinking about the cruel mathematics of my life, looking at my sums & wishing I'd shown my work. — Jonathan Evison

This newfangled country is starting to grow on me, the adult despair of it all. Stuff I can relate to: lost loves, lost houses, lost dogs. — Jonathan Evison

When it seemed at every turn that the winds of fate had blown our lives afoul, financially, emotionally, or idealistically. Look at all that we endured. Look at all we managed to light along our path through the long shadow of adversity. Look at the seemingly indestructible affiliation that was once us. And look at us now. — Jonathan Evison

I love being a struggling artist; it makes me feel very alive. — Jonathan Evison

I grew up in the Bay Area until 1976, then I pretty much went all the way through primary and high school on Bainbridge, though like anybody who grows up on an island, I ran the first chance I got. — Jonathan Evison

Wine is a much better salve than anything the medical profession has ever prescribed. Even the Bible condones it! — Jonathan Evison

Listen to me: everything you think you know, every relationship you've ever taken for granted, every plan or possibility you've ever hatched, every conceit or endeavor you've ever concocted, can be stripped from you in an instant. Sooner or later, it will happen. So prepare yourself. Be ready not to be ready. Be ready to be brought to your knees and beaten to dust. Because no stable foundation, no act of will, no force of cautious habit will save you from this fact: nothing is indestructible. — Jonathan Evison

There're so many great writers out there who aren't getting the exposure they deserve. — Jonathan Evison

I've been thinking about all the things I might have done differently. All the choices I didn't make. All the decisions that made and unmade me, all the actions and inactions I did or didn't take. With the shades drawn and the garbage overflowing, I've been thinking about all the bold steps I never took, all the gut instincts I didn't listen to, all the people I let down. I've been thinking about the cruel mathematics of my life, looking at my sums and wishing I'd shown my work. — Jonathan Evison