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Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Susan Isaacs Quotes

As soon as someone is coming from New York, I automatically think I have to get dressed up.

– Susan Isaacs

It’s no coincidence that I began writing the day my daughter started school. I knew everything I knew before I began to write, but I was raising two children and didn’t have the time to get to the typewriter.

– Susan Isaacs

Being a novelist is the adult version of a kid creating a make-believe world. But unlike a child, a writer of fiction has to come up with a structured story, one that has as much meaning for others as it has for her.

– Susan Isaacs

I was always the weirdo who wanted to have an egalitarian service in synagogue and felt I was always going against the grain.

– Susan Isaacs

We joined a Conservative synagogue. I began learning through engagement, rote and reading. Suddenly, I belonged… well, to the extent that a novelist can ever feel she is part of a group; we may be part of a minyan, but we’re not fully merged into the community.

– Susan Isaacs

I must have been yearning for some Jewish content beyond my genetic makeup because soon after my 21st birthday, I noticed I was no longer dating WASPs.

– Susan Isaacs

Could there be a cowgirl in my future? You know, I never know what character is going to come and tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Hey, tell my story.’ So maybe the next one will have boots.

– Susan Isaacs

I wanted to be a cowgirl… But, you know, it was pointed out to me that, you know, growing up in Brooklyn, there wasn’t much opportunity… for cowgirlery.

– Susan Isaacs

Everyone has early fiction fantasies, but it wasn’t until my second child Betsy was born that I allowed the urge to write a novel bubble up.

– Susan Isaacs

At the beginning, I really wanted to be home with my kid. I was a product of my generation. But in the suburbs, you are very isolated, really alone.

– Susan Isaacs

Our culture is so celebrity-obsessed that for individuals to show they matter, they need to display their intimacy to fame.

– Susan Isaacs

Whether you’re an obstetrician or a third-grade teacher or a real estate agent, you know when you’re doing good work. You’re passionate about it.

– Susan Isaacs

As for writing novels – it’s what I’ve done for 30 some-odd years. I can’t suddenly say I’m going to take up golf. I need something in my life. As long as I can write a coherent sentence, I’ll keep at it.

– Susan Isaacs

I can only write about two or three pages of fiction a day.

– Susan Isaacs

I am married to a happy camper. He’s a criminal lawyer who thinks people are inherently good and will befriend him. His father, at 93, is the same way.

– Susan Isaacs

I have such admiration for Whoopi Goldberg as an actress and a general smart person.

– Susan Isaacs

I love being a grandparent. I’m one of those you want to avoid – I pull out the iPhone and say, ‘Hey, wanna see my camera roll?’

– Susan Isaacs

My first novel, ‘Compromising Positions,’ was a whodunit. The protagonist was a Long Island Jewish housewife who turns private investigator. But she was Jewish the way I was: lighting Sabbath candles but envying her Protestant and Catholic friends’ December decorating options.

– Susan Isaacs

I’ve had lots of commercial success. I’ve also had some terrible reviews and some wonderful reviews.

– Susan Isaacs

It’s not that I’m apolitical… In my youth, I was a freelance political speechwriter, which taught me a lot about writing fiction, I must add.

– Susan Isaacs

Style is not my long suit, but I’m really fascinated by it.

– Susan Isaacs

With my middle-class metabolism, the suburbs were where I always wanted to be.

– Susan Isaacs

There are days where I lose track of time, of place, of everything else, because I’ve been transported to another universe.

– Susan Isaacs

It’s not all ‘Jane Eyre’ out there. In her sweet, honorable, slightly passive-aggressive way, Jane was as perfect as a protagonist can get while remaining interesting; in fact, she’s one of my favorites. But most characters are more morally ambiguous.

– Susan Isaacs

There is no ‘right’ way to begin a novel, but for me, plot has to wait. The character comes first.

– Susan Isaacs

I see myself as writing biographies, the complete story of someone’s life.

– Susan Isaacs