Needing something is not the same thing as being interested in the thing itself.

- Charles Baxter

If you want to see the consequences of ideas, write a story. If you want to see the consequences of belief, write a story in which somebody is acting…

- Charles Baxter

A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unse…

- Charles Baxter

Every relationship has at least one really good day. What I mean is, no matter how sour things go, there's always that day. That day is always in you…

- Charles Baxter

In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people who are standing outside all th…

- Charles Baxter

In February, the overcast sky isn’t gloomy so much as neutral and vague. It’s a significant factor in the common experience of depression among the l…

- Charles Baxter

As my mother once said to me, ‘They’re quite crazy, dear – men are. What you look for is one of them whose insanity is large enough, and calm and gen…

- Charles Baxter

Forget art. Put your trust in ice cream.

- Charles Baxter

Say what you want about it, Hell is story-friendly... The mechanisms of hell are nicely attuned to the mechanisms of narrative. Not so the pleasures …

- Charles Baxter