Christopher Castellani quotes

Deeply affecting and compulsively readable, The Fifty-First State displays Lisa Borders' emotional acuity, first-rate skills as a storyteller, and profound empathy not only for her two compelling main characters but for an oft-neglected region and a disappearing way of life.
-- Christopher Castellani

#Character #Emotional #Skills

I realized that you have to deal with a lot of baggage when you write about your own era, that it's harder to separate what is actually compelling from what is interesting simply because it mattered to you at the time.
-- Christopher Castellani

#Writing #Interesting #Baggage

Italians in particular are seen as either benign and child-like (the sweet old nonna with her meatballs), menacing mobsters, or hyper-sexualized housewives and gigolos; the kind of nourishment I'm looking for doesn't lie in any of these stereotypes.
-- Christopher Castellani

#Sweet #Children #Lying

I think that's actually what draws me to family stories: the various roles we each play with each member of our families, and how different they can be from who we are with our friends and partners and lovers. I'm endlessly fascinated by how we navigate these family dynamics; they are the dramas each of us live out day after day, often in ways we don't even realize.
-- Christopher Castellani

#Drama #Thinking #Play

I wrote in the mornings, often in cafes, on the way to the office. I gave myself a daily word minimum, usually 750. I tried to save revision for the weekends, when I had more consecutive hours to string together.
-- Christopher Castellani

#Morning #Weekend #Office

I haven't hit the bestseller list, but I consider myself one of the luckiest writers in the world, and this is mainly because of Grub Street.
-- Christopher Castellani

#World #Lists #Streets

But I guess I like playing flawed guys 'cause it gives a place for the characters to go.

I think fiction can help us find everything. You know, I think that in fiction you can say things and in a way be truer than you can be in real life and truer than you can be in non-fiction. There's an accuracy to fiction that people don't really talk about - an emotional accuracy.

No matter what's happening in the Middle East - the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment - the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.

Well, guys are better at mechanical stuff and women are better at emotional stuff.

I don't have anything against my mom, but my family has no emotional connection to each other.

I use color in terms of emotional quality, as a vehicle for feeling... feeling is everything I have experienced or thought.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete.

Most people believe that great leaders are distinguished by their ability to give compelling answers. This profound book shatters that assumption, showing that the more vital skill is asking the right questions…. Berger poses many fascinating questions, including this one: What if companies had mission questions rather than mission statements? This is a book everyone ought to read—without question.

There is a dearth of thinking skills - people are taught what to think, not how.

Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.