Edward P. Jones
Edward P. Jones
Edward Paul Jonesis an American novelist and short story writer. His 2003 novel The Known World received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
believe cocktail commodity famous invited marvelous
There are those who write because they believe they have something so marvelous that it will make them famous and wealthy, a lauded commodity who will be invited to a lifetime of cocktail parties.
almost god grew lived lives people raised watching
The people I grew up around, almost all of them had been born and raised in the South. And, you know, they didn't always go to church, but they lived their lives as if God were watching everything they did.
almost high lived seen teacher until white worked
My mother worked in the white world, but I lived almost exclusively in a black world. I don't think I had ever seen a white teacher until I got to high school.
afford catholic education hurt
My father was Catholic, and my mother wanted me to go to Catholic school. That's what I did in first grade. But she couldn't afford the payments. I think it must have hurt her a lot, not to be able to give me a Catholic education.
best english good literature moments
'Jane Eyre,' when I think of that book, it conjures up the best moments of college English courses. Literature is extraordinary, especially when you have a good professor.
figured places raised san streets whatever
It just so happens that I was born and raised in Washington. Had I been born in Chicago or San Antonio, the streets and places would have figured into whatever I wrote. Just so happens that it's Washington, D.C.
fourteen
I never like to put myself in the stories; in 'Lost in the City,' there are fourteen stories, and there's only one, 'The First Day,' about a little girl going to school, that has anything to do with me.
compulsion kernel stories
Those of us with this ancient compulsion to tell stories sometimes start with a single kernel of something.
believe people pull
People seem to have trouble with the imagination. They can't believe that you can just pull things out of your brain like that.
My mother relied on her memory to do things because she couldn't read. Part of that was not really knowing numbers.
I write a lot in my head. I've never been driven to write things down.
I don't want to own something that you can't take into your apartment at night.
believe might particular
I don't believe that there is any particular book that influenced any 'career' I might have.
home near
From my apartment in Arlington, I could see Washington. It was always nice to be near home.