Ottessa Moshfegh Quotes

Once I finished ‘Eileen,’ I wanted to write more novels. I don’t see myself stopping any time soon.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

I’m a first – I was the first person in my family born in the United States. My mom is from Croatia, and my dad is from Iran. They met at music school in Belgium. I grew up as a pianist. I was really interested in piano and sort of discovered that I was a writer when I was about 13 and started writing.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

It’s insane that people have these Internet identities. It has very little to do with who we really are. As a writer, who I’m friends with, how I spend my time, what I look like, what I wear, what I eat, what kind of music I like – it’s totally not important to the work.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

Puberty extends into your twenties, for sure, and some people don’t get over that until much later in life. I feel like I’m just starting to get over puberty – basically twenty years of insufferable, totally self-obsessed hell.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

I’ve always really enjoyed sharing my work with others. I find it really hard if I don’t think the work will exist outside of my own apartment.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

I don’t care about being a literary personality – that doesn’t appeal to me, especially because the literary world doesn’t appeal to me. I actually don’t feel like I even belong in it. If this was high school, I would be sitting with the Goths, looking at everyone, being like, ‘Whatever.’

– Ottessa Moshfegh

I’ve found that people get particularly frustrated and shut down when women in fiction are disgusting or disordered.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

My dad is a gentle and brilliant Iranian violinist.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

In my own experience, I’ve found that it’s very difficult to make peace with women. We tend to be competitive and feel angry.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

I’ve always been interested in family secrets and what happens behind closed doors. I find that fascinating and creepy – that’s why I read: because I want to know other people’s secrets.

– Ottessa Moshfegh

I’ve always known what I’m meant to do. The path of my life has been about discovering what I need to do to support myself as a writer.

– Ottessa Moshfegh