I have never been able to understand the complaint that a story is "depressing" because of its subject matter. What depresses me are stories that don't seem to know these things go on, or hide them in resolute chipperness; "witty stories," in which every problem is the occasion for a joke; "upbeat" stories that flog you with transcendence. Please. We're grown ups now.
Tobias WolffTag: depression-stories
a true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.
Tobias WolffThe bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end it will
do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and
talent and love into the marble hall of commerce.
There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all by themselves. Of course it's why you want to become a writer — because you have the liberty to do that, but once you have the liberty you also have the obligation to do it.
Tobias WolffTag: liberty writing solitude writer obligation
You felt it as a depth of ease in certain boys, their innate, affable assurance that they would not have to struggle for a place in the world; that is already reserved for them.
Tobias WolffFearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.
Tobias WolffTag: power rebels political tyrants
You boys know what tropism is, it's what makes a plant grow toward the light. Everything aspires to the light. You don't have to chase down a fly to get rid of it - you just darken the room, leave a crack of light in a window, and out he goes. Works every time. We all have that instinct, that aspiration. Science can't dim that. All science can do is turn out the false lights so the true light can get us home.
Tobias WolffWe even talked like Hemingway characters, though in travesty, as if to deny our discipleship: That is your bed, and it is a good bed, and you must make it and you must make it well. Or: Today is the day of the meatloaf. The meatloaf is swell. It is swell but when it is gone the not-having meatloaf will be tragic and the meatloaf man will not come anymore.
Tobias WolffYou can’t be selfish. But we men-it’s a wonder we forget ourselves long enough to buy a birthday card. As for love... we can love, but we’re always forgetting.
Tobias WolffI'm a survivor, " I said. But I didn't think that claim would carry much weight in an obituary.
Tobias WolffTag: humor death epitaph irony
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