Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro
Daneile Joyce "Dani" Shapiro is the author of five novels and the best-selling memoirs Slow Motion and Devotion. She has also written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and ELLE...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 April 1962
CountryUnited States of America
expected home investment jewish kids marry orthodox raise raised suburbs
I was raised in an orthodox Jewish home where it was expected that, as a woman, I'd marry an investment banker, raise kids in the suburbs and go to temple. I wasn't raised to set the world on fire.
against bring hebrew jewish next observant prayers pressed raised sitting streaming sunlight surely synagogue
I was raised in an observant Jewish household, so for me, Hebrew prayers - the sounds, the sunlight streaming in from the stained-glass windows of a synagogue - bring my father back to me as surely as if he were sitting next to me, my head pressed against his shoulder.
fallen legs moved
Sometimes when I'm at my desk, I'll realize that I have contorted myself completely, and I haven't moved for hours, and that my legs have fallen asleep. I am elsewhere, not in my body, not in the room, not in my house.
When it comes to the personal essays I write, I just convince myself that no one will ever read them.
fluent orthodox spoke thirteen until
One of the stranger things about me is that I was raised as an Orthodox Jew. I went to a yeshiva until I was thirteen years old and spoke fluent Hebrew.
excitement family heading hill house occasional save top
I live with my family on the top of a hill in the country, and during the days, my house is quiet, save for the occasional excitement of the FedEx truck heading up the driveway. I write.
learn time
With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.
guru social function
If there's anything weirder than an introverted writer going to lots of social functions, it's an introverted writer being converted into an accidental guru.
pieces want one-piece
I did want to feel like life's all of one piece.
thinking community solitude
I think so much about how we read, about the nature of solitude, and of community, is changing in ways that none of us yet understand.
public-speaking bigger found
I found myself doing so much public speaking, more and more and bigger and bigger.
community littles hungry
We're all simultaneously separated and connected by our devices, staring into our little screens, and also hungry for experience and community.
heart open-your-heart deep-inside
Open your hearts. Deep inside ourselves, we are all one and the same.
believe world given
You have to believe in yourself before the world has given you any indication that you should believe in yourself as a writer.