Denis Johnson Quotes

Denis Johnson — German Writer

Denis Hale Johnson is an American writer best known for his short story collection Jesus' Son and his novel Tree of Smoke, which won the National Book Award for Fiction. He also writes plays, poetry and non-fiction... (wikipedia)

I really enjoy writing novels. It's like the ocean. You can just build a boat and take off.

I didn't finish the stories until we went to the Philippines and I got malaria. I couldn't work and I didn't have any money, but I had seven stories. So I wrote three or four more.

I was probably 35 when I wrote the first story. The voice is kind of a mix in that it has a young voice, but it's also someone who's looking back. I like that kind of double vision.

If you write fiction, you're by yourself. There are certain advantages to that in that you don't have to explain anything to anybody. But when you get in with others who share the loneliness of the whole enterprise, you're not lonely anymore.

I'd met a woman and I got married, but the money ran out right away. I hadn't had a job for seven months, and it just came over me that I was never going to work again. It hit me.

Denis Johnson Quotes

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