“I feel very protective in the first draft, when all the pieces are com...” — Jill McCorkle Quote

“I feel very protective in the first draft, when all the pieces are coming together. I work in a way that is not linear or chronological at all, even with the short story. I will just be writing bits and pieces, and then when I have all the pieces on the table, that for me is when it feels like the real work begins.”

“I was with my dad 20 years ago as he was dying. I was there at the moment of his death, and I kept wondering the whole while what it must feel like from his point of view to still be there thinking, hearing all that was going on as people came and went, and life continued all around him.”

“If you looked at the sound pattern of an old-fashioned record, it would be very spikey. But nowadays, there's no spikes - everything looks like a brick, so the quiet bits become louder. It's actually damaging because it's like listening to a drill.”

“The way I view drama is life with the boring bits taken out.”

“I know a lot of actors who have said to me, 'who'd have thought you could put a two-shot on screen for twenty minutes and people would be absolutely locked in, how does that work?' Well it does work, when the story is great and you've got these fabulous twists and turns - so those are my favorite bits!”