I don't have the education of an art historian. I've certainly read about art and look at art and have educated myself to some extent. But I'm not a …

- Lynne Tillman

I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity …

- Lynne Tillman

Desire is a word I'm tired of. I've been living with that word for years. Yes, of course, we're all desiring machines. I have sometimes wondered what…

- Lynne Tillman

Boring people don't know they're boring. That's the problem with boring people.

- Lynne Tillman

I think it's true that unless human beings experience something, they simply don't understand what people are going through.

- Lynne Tillman

That's why our comics are important: they're pointing things out and laughing at the same time. There have been horrible, horrible times in history. …

- Lynne Tillman

Conversation on the page should reflect what the story is about. It doesn't have to be "realistic" in the sense that it's something you heard and plu…

- Lynne Tillman

I'm trying always to leave out what I think is extraneous. And to find what I think is the most wonderful language to make a beautiful sentence.

- Lynne Tillman

I'm bothered, as a reader, when I feel the writer is filling in too much. Again, whether it's nonfiction or fiction, I think writers are providing a …

- Lynne Tillman