After school, I got a job in a shop in Hollywood and shared an apartment with a friend. I promptly lost my job and got evicted from my apartment, and that happened several times. – Patrick deWitt
By the time I left the bar, I was 30. I was a dishwasher. They call it a bar-back, but essentially, I washed dishes for a living. I had no high-school diploma, I had no agent, and my literary successes were non-existent… but it was the only thing I ever wanted to do, so I did feel trapped. – Patrick deWitt
Especially if you’re endeavouring daily to write your own books, you read with a degree of – well, it’s hard to forget you’re a writer when you’re reading. – Patrick deWitt
The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don’t write people with likability in mind. It’s more whether or not I find them compelling. – Patrick deWitt
As a reader I want to be present and entertained. I don’t want to be taught lessons, and I don’t want to be spoken down to. I want to be treated as a peer and to be made to feel welcome. – Patrick deWitt
I felt like love has been underrepresented – unironic love, just actually really falling in love. – Patrick deWitt
When you meet someone you love, whether or not they love you back, something occurs in you that makes you want to improve yourself. – Patrick deWitt
When you’re 8 years old, and you’ve become subconsciously familiar with the layout and design of Black Sparrow books, and you know the difference between Miles Davis and John Coltrane, something is bound to stick. – Patrick deWitt
I’ve stopped reading about the death of books because it’s wasteful and morbid and insulting to the authors, agents, publishers, booksellers, critics, and readers that keep the world community of fiction interesting. – Patrick deWitt
I wrote for so many years in a bubble, the way everyone does, and there were large swaths of time where you think you’re doing this for nothing. An audience is crucial, a back and forth with the invisible readers. – Patrick deWitt
One of the nice things about writing is you can take essentially painful things in your life and turn them into something that might be useful, or at least entertaining, to somebody else. – Patrick deWitt
Certain writers look down their noses at plot, and I think I might have been one of them until I tried it. – Patrick deWitt
Bernie Madoff is probably more nuanced then I’m giving him credit for, but I just couldn’t get under his skin. – Patrick deWitt
Whenever we changed schools, we had to make a new set of friends. At the time, of course, I hated it. But looking back now, I’m really glad I did, because it forces independence on you. – Patrick deWitt
The question about my Canadianness comes up a lot, and I’m never quite sure what to say about it. I’ve carved a life out for myself in Oregon, and it feels like home, not because it’s the States but because that’s where my friends are and where my son is. – Patrick deWitt
I’ve fallen in love in my life a few times. It’s the most exciting part of being alive – that I’ve experienced, anyway. – Patrick deWitt
