Jami Attenberg

I don't know if I had ever found my place in the world until I fully committed to being a writer.

Does everything in this life begin and end with Judy Blume? Perhaps.

My grandmother died when my mother was just 11 years old, and consequently, my mother never learned how to cook particularly well.

The best thing about the Web is the sound of all the individual voices rising.

In your 40s, you shed those who bring you down and surround yourself with the most positive people you know.

I feel a bigger sense of fulfillment when writing a novel, and short stories are more about instant gratification.

As creative people, we should be really conscious of being of service in our work, being as generous as we can.

I was fat because my parents were a little fat themselves at that point in their lives, and I ate what they ate.

No offense to Bushwick, where all my neighbors greeted me on the street and there is a growing arts community and a curious beauty to its industrial zone, but Bushwick is no Williamsburg, even if the real estate agents would have you believe it is.

I actually didn't grow up in a household that loved Chinese food particularly, and it's not really my go-to food or anything... We were more a pizza family, being from the Chicago area and all.

I'm not really interested in writing or reading about people who are nice and easy. I like the problem children.

Your family is unavoidable. You cannot escape them or trade them in for another family. You also can't change them... but you can change your response to them.