Jami Attenberg
Jami Attenberg
smoking challenges quitting
You can quit smoking, and never have to have a cigarette again to survive. But with food, it is a daily challenge.
writing sitting-still wish
I wish I could write while I'm on the road but it never works for me. I need to be sitting still.
ocean giants possibility
An ellipsis is a giant ocean of possibilities.
notebook morning thinking
What I try very hard to do is have an hour or so in the morning when I leave the house and don't have my phone with me. I'll go sit in a cafe and read and handwrite in my notebook and not be facing a screen. My head will be clear. I will be able to hear myself think. Because honestly for the rest of the day it's just screens, screens, screens.
writing emotional historical-novels
I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.
book criticism female
Maybe just as many women writers as male writers could be billed as the next great American writer by their publisher. Maybe book criticism sections could review an equal amount of female and male writers. Maybe Oprah could start putting some books by women authors in her book club, since most of her audience is women.
boys feminist tracts
No matter how many feminist tracts you read, you never forget what boys like.
easily love peter
My love can be easily bought with a steak from Peter Luger's.
agents beauty believe curious estate growing industrial neighbors offense street
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.
fights kids picked threw
I did get in a few fights in school. Kids threw around anti-Semitic slurs, not knowing necessarily what they meant. It was probably just something they picked up somewhere, as kids do.
extremely
In 'The Odyssey,' every feast is extremely ritualized; high-status individuals even get a better cut of meat.
mostly occupy watched
I have watched Occupy Wall Street mostly from the sidelines.
time weigh
My parents are still married. They don't weigh 350 pounds; they go to the gym all the time.
addition apartments extremely home public shabby south
In addition to public housing, South Williamsburg is home to shabby artists' lofts like mine, apartments of Hasidic Jews, and one extremely tall, high-priced condo.