Paula McLain
Paula McLain
Paula McLainis an American author best known for her novel, The Paris Wife, a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage which became a long-time New York Times bestseller. She has published two collections of poetry, a memoir about growing up in the foster system, and the novel A Ticket to Ride...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
degree graduate looked onto poetry sort took
I took my first creative writing class when I was 24, then went onto to get a graduate degree in poetry. I've sort of never looked back from there.
desperate love mostly poetry wrote
I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a teenager - mostly desperate love poetry!
launch people quite street time
I get suggestions all the time. People feel quite free at events or even on the street to tell me what they think I should be writing. What I've learned, though, is that this thing, this connection, has to be in place for me to be able to kind of launch into a world imaginatively.
demanding fell force historical love married met nature occurred pages stormy
It had never occurred to me to write a historical novel, but then I found Hadley in the pages of Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast' and wanted to know more about her - who she was, how she and Ernest met and fell in love, what it was like for her to be married to such a demanding and stormy force of nature.
computer days feeds life published selling throw
There are many days when I want to throw my computer out the window, when I tell myself I'd be better off selling shoes at the mall. But I always keep at it, because I have to. Writing is completely part of who I am. Even if I never published another book, I would keep at it - because it feeds my life and makes it richer.
loss talking sea
More and more I find myself at a loss for words and didn't want to hear other people talking either. Their conversations seemed false and empty. I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.
staring
My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.
writing simple one-sentence
If I can write one sentence, simple and true every day, I'll be satisfied.
mistake thinking wish
Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.
years two jumping
This was my one brush with love. Was it love? It felt awful enough. I spent another two years crawling around in the skin of it, smoking too much and growing too thin and having stray thoughts of jumping from my balcony like a tortured heroine in a Russian novel.
beautiful moving talking
She was also incredibly confident, with a way of moving and talking that communicated that she didn't need anyone to tell her she was beautiful or worthwhile.
games waiting kind
All that was left for me was a terrible kind of paralysis, this waiting game, this heartbreak game.
stupid love-is stupid-things
But love is love. It makes you do terribly stupid things.
know-how knows
Maybe no one can know how it is for anyone else.