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It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

I could name a few songs and say exactly what summer they came out and what boy I thought I was in love with when I was fourteen years old, but I think that music used to be really more a part of the culture when people went out dancing in a different way than they do now.

Falling in Place was meant to be very much rooted in a place and time, and music was a part of that.

Ann Beattie

Music

Time

I've been in this business for a long time, and I no longer think that anything that I do by way of clarification is ever going to eradicate the mistakes.

I've spent my life supporting myself.

Ann Beattie

Life

If you could have a book called My Favorite Six Stories, I don't think I'd have trouble doing that.

Ann Beattie

Favorite

Trouble

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

It's interesting, though, that in daily life, I think of myself as being relatively unobservant.

Ann Beattie

Life

Being

I feel that these stories are being written to articulate certain confusions and disappointments, and I do mean to shake up the reader, and I do hope they're on target.

It's gratifying that it does; I love to give readings.

Ann Beattie

Love

Quite often my narrator or protagonist may be a man, but I'm not sure he's the more interesting character, or if the more complex character isn't the woman.

You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story.

Women are obviously much more discriminated against than men in many ways.

Ann Beattie

Men

Women

While I would agree that I write about serious subjects, and that they're not necessarily the most pleasant subjects or even the most pleasant people, as a writer I just think about the humorous aspects of these things - that's what keeps me going when I'm writing a story.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.