Quotes by Barry Hannah

Barry Hannah

American novelist

Lived from: 1942 - 2010

Category: Writers (Contemporary)

Born: 23 april 1942 Died: 1 march 2010

Quotes 1 till 12 of 12.

  • Honestly, I envy painters, who can have a masterpiece in one morning. Or musicians, who can write something in 30 minutes and arrange it in an hour, sometimes. 'Cause with this, with writing, you can occasionally feel like a caveman, like you've been working with pitch and tar on this brush.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • A writer's job is to destroy and then to build the thing back up again by a chosen means.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • I'll tell you why I like writing: it's just jumping into a pool. I get myself into a kind of trance. I engage the world, but it's also wonderful to just escape. I try to find the purities out of the confusion. It's pretty old-fashioned, but it's fun.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • Most novels I come across have all the excitement of a long trip on a bus with a sensitive glee club. Yammer and chat.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • My aunts told wonderful stories. Not to me, but to each other. We had a very strong family. My mother's sisters loved each other intensely. The uncles loved each other intensely.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • My best stories come out of nowhere, with no concern for form at all.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • My dad read history, about a book a day, but only after he retired as a successful bank and insurance man.
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  • Randomness I love. And I still love just a holler right in the middle of an ongoing narrative. Pain or joy, ecstasy.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • Some writers are curiously unmusical. I don't get it. I don't get them. For me, music is essential. I always have music on when I'm doing well. Writing and music are two different mediums, but musical phrases can give you sentences that you didn't think you ever had.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • Voice comes to you through a spell, a trance. The best voices are not you... they're a little away from you.
    ― Barry Hannah
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  • When you're not involved, other people's unhappiness seems to be about the funniest damn thing on earth because you think you can solve it, that you are God, that you are above this, and that their unhappiness is just such useless toil and agony. If it's you, it ceases to be a comedy.
    ― Barry Hannah
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Barry Hannah?

The two most famous quotes from Barry Hannah are:

  • "Honestly, I envy painters, who can have a masterpiece in one morning. Or musicians, who can write something in 30 minutes and arrange it in an hour, sometimes. 'Cause with this, with writing, you can occasionally feel like a caveman, like you've been working with pitch and tar on this brush."
  • "A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't."

When did Barry Hannah live?

Barry Hannah was born in 1942 and died in the year 2010.