Monette Pangan
Http://www.tryingoutshoshin.com
“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
― Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
― Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
― Bird by Bird
― Bird by Bird
“I've seen women insist on cleaning everything in the house before they could sit down to write... and you know it's a funny thing about housecleaning... it never comes to an end. Perfect way to stop a woman. A woman must be careful to not allow over-responsibility (or over-respectabilty) to steal her necessary creative rests, riffs, and raptures. She simply must put her foot down and say no to half of what she believes she "should" be doing. Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.”
― Women Who Run With the Wolves
― Women Who Run With the Wolves
“Whodunnits are all about truth: nothing more nothing less. In a world full of uncertainties, is it not inherently satisfying to come to the last page with every i dotted and every t > crossed? The stories mimic our experience in the world. We are surrounded by tensions and ambiguities, which we spend half our life trying to resolve, and we'll probably be on our own deathbed when we reach that moment when everything makes sense. Just about every whodunnit provides that pleasure. It is the reason for their existence.”
― Magpie Murders
― Magpie Murders
“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”
― Bird by Bird
― Bird by Bird
Monette’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Monette’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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