“Nora had been training herself not to think too much about her kids. Not because she wanted to forget them - not at all - but because she wanted to remember them more accurately. For the same reason, she tried not to look too often at old photographs or videos...After a while, these scraps hardened into a kind of official narrative that crowded out thousands of equally valid memories, shunting the losers to some cluttered basement storage area in her brain.”
“Nora had been training herself not to think too much about her kids. Not because she wanted to forget them - not at all - but because she wanted to remember them more accurately. For the same reason, she tried not to look too often at old photographs or videos...After a while, these scraps hardened into a kind of official narrative that crowded out thousands of equally valid memories, shunting the losers to some cluttered basement storage area in her brain.”
Tom Perrotta
“I would probably have to say that reading fiction — those stories fill the space that other people might use religious stories for. The bulk of what I know about human life I’ve gotten from novels. And I think the thing about novels that make them important to the people who love them is that there’s always another perspective.”
Tom Perrotta“I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.”
Tom Perrotta“When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.”
Tom Perrotta“Laurie herself was more focused on the years when her kids were little, when she felt so necessary and purposeful, a battery all charged up with love. Every day she used it up and every night it got miraculously replenished. Nothing had ever been as good as that.”
Tom Perrotta“Quite a metaphor. The person in the most pain wins. Does that mean I get a Blue Ribbon?”
Tom Perrotta“He knew for a fact that it was possible to fall and just keep falling.”
Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers“It’s a matter of dignity,” the Chief explained. “At a certain point, that’s all you have left.”
Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers“Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us.”
Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers“Apparently even the most awful tragedies, and the people they'd ruined, got a little stale after a while.”
Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers“That’s why we get involved with other people, right? Not just for their bodies, but for everything else, too – their dreams and their scars and their stories.”
Tom Perrotta, The LeftoversAll in One Creative & Marketing Platform to tell stories at scale
