Michael Cunningham Quotations

Accept that, like many men, you have a streak of the homoerotic in you. Why would you, why would anyone, want to be that straight?

If you've really loved a book, or a movie for that matter, really loved it, what you want is that same book again, but as if you've never read it. And when you get something unfamiliar, you feel betrayed.

Language in fiction is made up of equal parts meaning and music. The sentences should have rhythm and cadence, they should engage and delight the inner ear.

People are more than you think they are. And they're less, as well. The trick lies in negotiating your way between the two.

I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss.

A certain slightly cruel disregard for the feelings of living people is simply part of the package. I think a writer, if hes any good, is not an entirely benign entity in the world.

Sure, go ahead, simulate life, using only ink and paper.

I just don't feel much interested in the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

The lives great artists live and the books they write are two very different things.

Here's a secret. Many novelists, if they are pressed and if they are being honest, will admit that the finished book is a rather rough translation of the book they'd intended to write.