lorrie moore Quotes

Living did not mean one joy piled upon another. It was merely the hope for less pain, hope played like a playing card upon another hope, a wish for kindnesses and mercies to emerge like kings and queens in an unexpected change of the game. One could hold the cards oneself or not: they would land the same regardless.

- Lorrie Moore, Bark: Stories

Tell me something wonderful," he said to Dane. "Tell me that we are going to die dreamfully and loved in our sleep.""You're always writing one of your plays on the phone," said Dane."I said, something wonderful. Say something about springtime.""It is sloppy and wet. It is a beast from the sea.""Ah," said Harry.

- Lorrie Moore, Like Life

You know, I'm just a very boring, not very funny person in person. I don't feel pressured to be otherwise.

- Lorrie Moore

Humor comes from the surprise release of some buried tension.

- Lorrie Moore

Guns, she was reminded then, were not for girls. They were for boys. They were invented by boys. They were invented by boys who had never gotten over their disappointment that accompanying their own orgasm there wasn't a big boom sound.

- Lorrie Moore, Like Life

She knew there were only small joys in life--the big ones were too complicated to be joys when you got all through--and once you realized that, it took a lot of the pressure off.

- Lorrie Moore, Like Life

I've never been to a dinner party where everyone at the dinner table didn't say something funny.

- Lorrie Moore

He began to prefer talking on the phone to actually getting together with someone, preferred the bodilessness of it, and started to turn down social engagements. He didn't want to actually sit across from someone in a restaurant, look at their face, and eat food. He wanted to turn away, not deal with the face, have the waitress bring them two tin cans and some string so they could just converse, in a faceless dialogue.

- Lorrie Moore, Like Life

I don't sit down to write a funny story. Every single thing I sit down to write is meant to be sad.

- Lorrie Moore

When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, 'Women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute. Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.'

- Lorrie Moore

You focus on telling stories,
we do everything else.