According to Hannah, real life just happens, whereas stories make sense. When you put real life in print, she says, you show it up for the pointless mess it really is.

— Jincy Willett

Actually, the Sniper's sense of humor frightened Amy more than anything else. The parody of Carla's poem had been witty, the rudeness of Mary's critique outlandish, and she was still, for some reason, focused on that "house" in the Sniper's counterfeit email. "House" was like a spectral elbow to Amy's ribs. Dangerous, malevolent people should not be amusing. In order to be humorous, you had to have perspective, to be able to stand outside yourself and your own needs and grudges and fears and see yourself for the puny ludicrous creature you really are. How could somebody do that and still imagine himself entitled to harry, to wound, to kill?

— Jincy Willett

All plots are cliché.

— Jincy Willett

Arithmetic is the death of story.

— Jincy Willett

Carla was wearing a No Fear sweatshirt. You are too old, Amy wanted to tell her, for legible clothing.

— Jincy Willett

(D)dialogue is generally the worst choice for exposition. 'When you're writing lines...you need to focus on the way people actually talk. And when we talk to each other we never actually explain our terms. We don't say 'Sweetheart, would you pass me the sugar bowl, which we picked up for a song at that antique stall in Munich.

— Jincy Willett

If something was worth writing down, it was worth writing down in full. And she had a horror of lists--grocery lists, Christmas card lists, and most grisly of all, to-do lists. Lists, like appointment books, were nails driven into the future. She knew this was an odd objection to be raised by a person whose daily life was utterly predictable, who never threw caution, or anything else, to the winds, who never packed light, because she never packed at all. Still, the future was a sleeping monster, not to be poked.

— Jincy Willett

I thought, you see, that there must be some connection between money and memorable experience; between rare wine and rare intelligence. In short, I was a romantic idiot.

— Jincy Willett

Jenny Marten is who again?" Amy knew perfectly well who she was. Jenny Marten was hot, hotter than Amy had ever been, and Jenny Marten would be washed up in ten years and didn't know it. "And Jenny is my number one fan?"" No, but she likes you. She read your stories in grad school."" What is she, twelve?"" The point is, she really liked the article, and all that stuff about experience and news. Lex says she says you've got gravitas."" That's a dirty lie. I never even had mono.

— Jincy Willett

Just start the sentence...and see what happens. This is how we write.

— Jincy Willett