Philip Gerard > Quotes

“Nobody writes a book. What you write every day is a piece of a book, a fragment, a scene.”
― Philip Gerard

“The fastest way to write is to pretend you have all the time in the world.”
― Philip Gerard

“She clearly had the gift. Partly, the gift was just plain, old-fashioned love. Partly, it was a questioning intelligence. Real teachers had a kind of longing, a searching excitement of soul. They wanted to find out things. They didn’t settle for the old, easy answers. They lived in their minds more than in the world.”
― Philip Gerard, Cape Fear Rising

“It's always seemed odd to me that nonfiction is defined, not by what it is, but by what it is not. It is not fiction. But then again, it is also not poetry, or technical writing or libretto. It's like defining classical music as nonjazz.”
― Philip Gerard, Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life

“I love the hush of those deserted places, those old battlefields, always so breathtaking, as if we, as a species, have decided to fight only in beautiful places.”
― Philip Gerard

“You hear all this talk about Southern hospitality. And they’ll break their necks for you, all right, if you’re family. Or if you’ve lived here for a hundred years. But if you’re a stranger …”
― Philip Gerard, Cape Fear Rising