“Always the danger for me in life and in art is not to be brave. I am n...” — Jenny Offill Quote

“Always the danger for me in life and in art is not to be brave. I am not a naturally brave person. I have to will myself not to hole up in my house and read my life away.”

“I had written a novel that was more of a classic linear novel, and I worked on it and worked on it for years, and it always seemed like it wouldn't catch fire. At a certain point I just scrapped it all, and I kept maybe 15 percent of it, and I wrote those parts out on note cards.”

“I have a slightly contrarian streak as a writer, and one of the things I was interested in was how distilled could I make a life, and how I could cross what is kind of trivialized as a domestic novel with a novel of ideas, a philosophical novel.”

“I had to learn not to let anyone push me around, to be brave and to say things I knew might make people mad.”

“My parents came to see me in a play at Eton when I was 16. And then, when I said I wanted to try for drama school, they knew there was enough passion there for them to be brave and back me.”

“By telling myself to be more brave, it's not like, 'Maria, now be brave, and you're brave.' It's just a process in practice and everything that has helped me to be more brave.”