Welcome to the captivating world of Jennifer Egan’s literary musings. Jennifer Egan, an esteemed American author, has crafted a tapestry of words that resonate with profound insights, emotional depth, and striking imagery. With a career spanning multiple acclaimed novels and short stories, Egan has established herself as a masterful storyteller whose works traverse various genres and themes, from historical fiction to speculative fiction, all while delving into the complexities of human experience.
Egan’s writing is characterized by its rich prose, intricate narratives, and keen observations of modern life. Her ability to blend the personal with the universal, the mundane with the extraordinary, invites readers to embark on journeys that are both familiar and extraordinary. Whether exploring the intricacies of relationships, the impact of technology on society, or the passage of time itself, Egan’s words possess a unique ability to captivate and provoke thought. Join us as we delve into the profound wisdom encapsulated in Jennifer Egan’s words, where each quote serves as a window into the vast landscapes of the human condition.
In a way, I’m always trying to do something I’m not qualified to do. So I feel that lack of qualification. And I’m scared. And I have a tendency to think things may not/probably won’t work out. That’s my basic mindset. Jennifer Egan
Invention and memory are so close together in the place they occupy in my brain. Jennifer Egan
I spend so long writing each of my novels that by the time I’m done with one, I’m ready to discover a totally different world. Jennifer Egan
I love how close New York is to Europe; I love the seasons, and I don’t think I could live without them. They’re the way I track the passage of time. Jennifer Egan
I was on a very bumpy plane ride, an overnight flight. I was so miserable, and I pulled out ‘David Copperfield,’ and I forgot how scared and tired I was, and I thought, ‘This is what reading should be.’ I’m utterly transported out of my current situation. Jennifer Egan
Because you can’t write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That’s how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff. Jennifer Egan
‘Look at Me’ started with Rockford, Illinois and New York and the question of how much image culture was changing our inner lives. That’s an abstract idea; you don’t think that’s going to be a rocking work of fiction, but it seemed to fuse in a way that was interesting. Jennifer Egan
I hope to keep writing journalism as long as I write fiction; it’s afforded me such amazing adventures and opportunities. It does take a lot of time, so it’s hard to do both at once, but I try to do a big journalism piece every couple of years, and I’ll hopefully continue with that. Jennifer Egan
I write with pen and paper, my first draft, on legal pads. Jennifer Egan
I grew up in the ’70s, when people talked on the phone – and just talked more. I remember the phone was the epicenter of our house. I spent hours every evening as a teenager waiting for the phone to ring and talking to my friends. Jennifer Egan
I don’t really begin with ideas about genre. I certainly wrote a gothic novel, ‘The Keep,’ that conformed to and, in some ways, played with every convention I knew of to work with in the gothic, but the way I came to it was very instinctive and visceral. Jennifer Egan
Reading is a lot like eating for me: If I try to read a book I’m not hungry for, I won’t enjoy it, but if I wait until I have a real appetite for something, I’ll devour it. Jennifer Egan
I teach intermittently, and while I enjoy it, I don’t find that it’s a calling for me. Jennifer Egan
I write totally spontaneously. I actually write fiction by hand – that always seems to startle people. I think the reason I do that is to bypass the thinking part of me and get to the more unconscious part, which is where all the good ideas seem to be. Jennifer Egan
I loved every minute of my childhood – sunbathing on the fire escape, digging for buried treasure in the back yard, pulling alewives out of the sand… Then it was all taken away from me. I came back every summer to visit my father until I was 18, but I was always the outsider. Jennifer Egan
I often felt like that Mr. Magoo figure in the cartoon, who just wanders through traffic, and somehow it never hits him. I kind of feel that way about my whole childhood: Why do I have a normal life? Jennifer Egan
I have a tendency to coddle my sons because I want to keep them safe, but I also want them to be strong and independent and curious and bold, and I worry that my coddling is going to have exactly the opposite effect. Jennifer Egan
I’m not a technophobe, but I’m pretty old fashioned. Jennifer Egan
After 9/11, the U.S. seemed vulnerable for the first time in a long time. We were no longer the superpower that no other country could touch. I thought, ‘When and how did that dominance begin?’ Jennifer Egan
I try consciously to keep myself entertained and challenged to not repeat myself at all. Like, when I start a new book, my goal is to pretty much throw out what I’ve done and try something completely different that I think initially I cannot do. Jennifer Egan
I have this dream again and again: I find extra rooms in the place where I live. You could say it’s a very New York dream, but I think it’s about writing – the feeling that there is something behind a wall or a door. Jennifer Egan
I did go on safari in Kenya when I was 17, with my mother, stepfather and little brother, and I kept a careful journal of the experience that was very helpful in terms of my sensory impressions of Africa. I have traveled quite a bit at distinct times in my life, though now that I have kids I’ve settled down. Jennifer Egan
I think, for one thing, all of us remember those teenage years and those songs that we fell in love with and the music scene that we were part of. So, in a certain way, music cuts through time like almost nothing else. You know, it makes us feel like we’re back in an earlier moment. Jennifer Egan
I’m not sure if the passage of time affects our core identities so much as reveals them to us. Jennifer Egan
I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didn’t exist. Jennifer Egan
I felt more doubtful than usual with ‘Goon Squad,’ because I knew that the book’s genre wasn’t easily named – Novel? Stories? Novel-in-stories? – and I worried that its lack of a clear category would count against it. My hopes for it were pretty modest. Jennifer Egan
I’m partial to epic poetry, which might be surprising given that I don’t write poetry at all. The combination of rollicking storytelling with musical language seems to me the highest achievement. Jennifer Egan
I never did anything original my whole childhood. I was invisible. Jennifer Egan
The sheer sensory experience of San Francisco is unlike anywhere else. Not just the physical beauty, but the textures, the feel, the wind, the ocean. It’s a monumental feeling unrivaled by anywhere else. Its a world class, gorgeous city. And the coffee is great. Jennifer Egan
I was obsessed with The Who. I would have accepted a marriage proposal from Roger Daltrey on the spot. I went to all of their shows in San Francisco and some in L.A. That was as close as I got to being a groupie. Jennifer Egan
If I’m doing something I know I can pull off, then that’s not the book I should be writing. Jennifer Egan
I’ve never been that confident. I don’t tend to think, swaggeringly, ‘I’m going to ace this.’ It’s just not who I am. Jennifer Egan
If you’ve been around as long as I have, watching the literary scene, then you know that who’s in and who’s out changes by the year. It’s really a very fluid situation that requires that the person who is having the good luck now isn’t having it a year or two from now. Jennifer Egan
I can’t even imagine writing nonfiction by hand. I think if I didn’t have a computer, I just couldn’t do it. Maybe it’s a brain-section issue. Jennifer Egan
It’s not that I sit down and write great stuff without thinking, not at all. Most of it is terrible. But the stuff that feels fun and fresh to me tends to happen fairly unthinkingly. Jennifer Egan
When I pick up a book that’s, you know, wreathed in laurels, I expect a lot, and that doesn’t give the book its best chance to shine. Jennifer Egan
The way that Dickens structured his books has a form that we most readily recognize now from, say, the great T.V. series, like ‘The Wire’ or ‘The Sopranos.’ There’s one central plot line, but then from that spin off all kinds of subplots. Jennifer Egan
I think the one thing that’s changed over time is that I’ve come to realise, as a fiction writer, the fact that I don’t think it will work out, doesn’t mean that it actually won’t. Jennifer Egan
The part of the process that’s exciting to me is feeling like I’m in a place I’ve never been before, in every way. Without that, I don’t know if I’d be a writer. Jennifer Egan
But I always need to identify with a character to write about him or her – and by ‘identify,’ I mean see the world through that person’s eyes and have a strong sense of the inner logic of their acts and decisions, wacky or wrongheaded though they might be. In that sense, I think there’s some of me in all of them. Jennifer Egan
When I think about a book like ‘A Clockwork Orange,’ which I really loved, the weird hybrid language is what I remember most. Jennifer Egan
The book that is the closest genetically to ‘Goon Squad’ is ‘Look at Me.’ It has the futuristic element – although, freakishly, almost every aspect I invented has come to pass in some way, including the terrorist who fantasies about blowing up the World Trade Centre. That was extremely uncomfortable. The book came out on the week of 9/11. Jennifer Egan
I am at my worst trying to write about things that overlap with my life. Jennifer Egan
Proust, my big inspiration for ‘Goon Squad,’ uses music a lot in his novel, both in terms of plot and structure. I liked the idea of doing the same thing, which is one reason I structured ‘Goon Squad’ as a record album, with an A side and a B side, that’s built around the contrasting sounds of the individual numbers in it. Jennifer Egan
As a reader and a writer, I’m happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist. Jennifer Egan
People define themselves to some degree by the music that they listened to as teens. My mom had Elvis. Me, I had ‘The Who’ and later punk rock. Kids who came up in the ’80s had other songs and bands. It’s a way of placing ourselves culturally and temporally. Jennifer Egan
I blurb a lot of books by women, and I’m eager to provide encouragement and support for young women. Jennifer Egan
If you don’t have people that the reader cares about and stories that are gripping, you’ve got nothing. Jennifer Egan
I haven’t read a lot of science fiction, and I never intend to write it; it seems to happen a little bit inadvertently for me, in that I’m trying to follow people into points in their lives that demand that I investigate the future. Jennifer Egan
You can research until you’re falling asleep, but that still doesn’t mean you’re really fluent in the material. Jennifer Egan
I love the thriller genre generally. I like murder mysteries and those kinds of adventure stories. Jennifer Egan
‘Goon Squad’ took about three years to write and that’s the short end. My second novel, ‘Look at Me,’ took six years. Jennifer Egan
I’m a dogged person. I respond to adversity with a steely resistance. Jennifer Egan
I knew as far back as 2001 that I would write a book called ‘A Visit From the Goon Squad,’ though I had no idea what kind of book it would be. Jennifer Egan
Fiction is my deepest love, but I love journalism, too. It keeps me thinking vigorously, and it reminds me that there is a world out there. Jennifer Egan
I have a hatred of familiarity. If I feel like I am doing something I’ve done before, it feels old and done. I feel I have no choice but to strike out in directions that feel new – anything less just doesn’t seem worth it. Jennifer Egan
Not to brag, but I do think I’ve gotten pretty adept on PowerPoint… except that I can’t figure out how to use Excel! Jennifer Egan
You can start imagining all kinds of things characters would feel, but you have to have a sense of whether those imaginings might be right. Jennifer Egan
I’m obsessed with the Victorian novel. I can’t help it. I feel like the novel then was so powerful and agile in ways I’m not sure it is now. Jennifer Egan
That adage about ‘Write what you know’ is basically the opposite of the way I function. I write about what I’m curious to find out. Jennifer Egan
I grew up in the 1970s, and my friends and I felt very keenly that we had missed the ’60s. We were bummed out about it. Jennifer Egan
The bottom line is that I like my first drafts to be blind, unconscious, messy efforts; that’s what gets me the best material. Jennifer Egan
I would go so far as to say that I mostly write terrible things. I mean, my first drafts are so appalling. Jennifer Egan
There’s something very strange about associating me with that prize. I had hoped for it in a more directed way as a journalist. Somehow as a journalist you know there are Pulitzers out there and you can work hard and get one. To win it for Fiction seems unbelievable. Jennifer Egan
One futuristic novel that had a huge impact on me was Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein,’ which is kind of science fiction plus Gothic. Jennifer Egan
In the case of ‘Goon Squad,’ which sold slowly for a long time despite the good reviews, those ‘best of 2010’ lists were pivotal, and made the book really sell. Jennifer Egan
Criticism is fine and conversation is fine, but the person who’s criticizing should know what they’re saying and whom they’re criticizing. Jennifer Egan
To some degree, we’re all thinking about the same things. It’s the zeitgeist. The trick, in a way, as a writer, is to hope that your interests in some sense link up with the culture around you. Jennifer Egan
I think the big lesson I’ve learned is that it’s very hard to write satire in America because almost immediately, whatever you’ve thought of turns out to come true, or sometimes it already was true. Jennifer Egan
I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I actually wrote to a number of archeology departments and offered up my services. Jennifer Egan
I listened to classic rock and roll, and punk rock. ‘Goon Squad’ provides a pretty accurate playlist of my teenage years, though it leaves out ‘The Who,’ which was my absolute favorite band. Jennifer Egan
Time is always a component of place; you can’t really talk about where without talking about when. Jennifer Egan
I felt unbelievably lucky to have the success I did with ‘Goon Squad,’ and I also felt the pressure of how fleeting that success can be. Jennifer Egan
I always feel very afraid as I work on books. It’s just so hard to write a decent book! Jennifer Egan
One of my strengths as a writer is that I’m a good problem-solver. I write these unthinking, ungoverned first drafts. The project for me always is to turn that instinctive stuff into pages that work. Jennifer Egan
When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor. I was really interested in gore. My grandfather was an orthopedic surgeon and he had a lot of books in his library that I would just pore over. A lot of them had really horrible pictures of deformities. Jennifer Egan
Both my own process and that of the publishing industry are just too slow to do anything other than play catch-up when it comes to anticipating change. Jennifer Egan
I think a playful critique is good for all of us, and that’s basically how I see satire functioning. But I’m not interested in a kind of contemptuous satirical vision; I try always, even when I’m knowingly being satirical, to also be humane, but I mean, let’s face it: there’s plenty in American life to make fun of, and we all participate in it. Jennifer Egan
Technology makes everyone feel old. A laptop is old after two years. Someone always has something newer. Everyone seems to feel obsolete now, even the young. Jennifer Egan
If you can write any way and it’s working out, just bow down in gratitude. Jennifer Egan
Americans are less selfish than some of our politicians believe and will respond with reason and resilience to passionate clarity. Jennifer Egan
My last novel, ‘The Keep,’ was very explicitly technological, about the quality of living in a state constantly surrounded by disembodied presences, and I was thinking very much about the online experience. Jennifer Egan
I should say, I don’t write about myself or my life. So for me, in fiction, it’s always been about what I can dream up, that feels far away from me. Jennifer Egan
In terms of rock and roll, I’m often drawn to louder, rougher stuff; maybe that’s my history as a punk rock wannabee showing itself! Honestly, though, I’m not one of those people who listens to music constantly. I really love silence. Jennifer Egan
I’m embarrassed to say this, but I shy away from memoirs. My feeling is always that I’m saving them for later, so I guess that means I’ll reach a point when I read nothing else. Jennifer Egan
Remaining a pop phenomenon for 20 years without dying or lapsing into self-parody is quite a feat. Jennifer Egan
Nowadays I’m more interested in what you’d call ‘alternative.’ Lately we’ve been listening to a lot of Mumford & Sons, and Jenny Owen Youngs. I’m also pretty crazy about the Kings of Convenience, a Norwegian band that’s been compared to Simon and Garfunkel. Jennifer Egan
What lists and awards don’t measure – and I feel this strongly – is the lasting value of any work of art. They’re a snapshot of a moment, and one should always consider their judgments in that context. Jennifer Egan
For me, New York is about anonymity; that’s the draw. It’s not at all about other people in my business being nearby. It’s that I can get on the subway and eavesdrop on conversations that I would never have access to otherwise. That’s why I stay. That’s why I could never leave. Jennifer Egan
I’ve tried writing on a computer thinking it would make me more efficient, but if you’re writing crummy stuff, being efficient is no help. Jennifer Egan
I’ve been interested in terrorism from the very beginning. My first novel is about that, too, and I think one reason I’ve been so interested in terrorism is because I have a deep interest – one of my deepest interests – in image culture and how it works. And terrorism is an epiphenomenon of image culture. Jennifer Egan
I love the infinite variety of New York, how it’s the epicenter of so many worlds. Jennifer Egan
As a journalist, I have wanted very much to find a way to write about the music industry, and it’s been frustrating to me that that’s never worked out. Jennifer Egan
I don’t really know where my ideas come from. I start with a time and a place. That’s what I need to get started, and an intellectual question. Jennifer Egan
With ‘The Keep,’ I began with a theory about pitting the isolated disconnection of the gothic realm against present-day hyperconnectedness. I emerged feeling that the gothic genre is all about hyperconnectedness – the possibility of disembodied communication – and that we now live in a kind of permanently gothic state. Jennifer Egan
The music industry is an interesting lens through which to look at change, because it has had such a difficult time adjusting to the digital age. Jennifer Egan
One area I have a huge amount of trouble in is writing about myself. I get a heavy, almost depressed feeling. Jennifer Egan
If having a story that’s compelling – you want to know what will happen – is traditional, then ultimately I am a traditionalist. That is what readers care about. It’s what I care about as a reader. Now if I can have that along with a strong girding of ideas and some kind of exciting technical forays – then that is just the jackpot. Jennifer Egan
I haven’t had trouble with writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled with lurching, cliched writing, outright flailing around. Writing that doesn’t have a good voice or any voice. But then there will be good moments. Jennifer Egan
Comparison is painful. Don’t be cowed by other people’s pretty pictures. When you feel unimpressive, or irrelevant, that has nothing to do with what you’re actually capable of. Jennifer Egan