I love staying in written correspondence with some writers. That’s enough for me.
ALAN LIGHTMANFranz Kafka is an idea person. His books begin and end in ideas. Ideas have always been important to me in my writing.
More Alan Lightman Quotes
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Every essay – the subject matter of every essay – is ultimately about the essayist; him or herself. That ultimately, every essayist is writing about his or her view of the world.
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And beyond any particular clock, a vast scaffold of time, stretching across the universe, lays down the law of time equally for all.
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If you over-plot your book you strangle your characters. Your characters have to have enough freedom and life to be able to surprise you.
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A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable.
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Others hold that each decision must be considered and committed to, that without commitment there is chaos. Such people are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each.
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Whenever Obama uses subtleties in discussing a complex issue, he gets creamed.
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Writers read essays and serious thinkers and serious readers… that is a small population.
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No one ever expects poetry to sell…
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Writers are a loosely knit community – community is an overstated word. Writers don’t see each other very much.
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The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy.
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In fiction writing ideas have to be handled extremely carefully.
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If you told a story that was all darkness, it wouldn’t be real.
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In this world, time has three dimensions, like space.
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Except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other gods conflict with the assumptions of science.
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Nature is purposeless. Nature simply is. We may find nature beautiful or terrible, but those feelings are human constructions. Such utter and complete mindlessness is hard for us to accept.
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