Quotes by Dani Shapiro

About Dani Shapiro:

Daneile Joyce "Dani" Shapiro is the author of five novels and the best-selling memoirs Slow Motion and Devotion. She has also written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and ELLE.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The mind is a monkey, hopping around from thought to thought, image to image. Rarely do more than a few seconds go by in which the mind can remain single-pointed, empty.

Dani Shapiro

Novels are my favorite to write and read. I do like writing personal essays, too. I'm not really a short story writer, nor do I tend to gravitate to them as a reader.

Dani Shapiro

We secretly believe that if only we achieve some elusive goal - fitting into a pair of skinny jeans, or redoing our kitchen or getting that promotion - that it will make us happy. But the pain of our insecurity is hidden in all that racing around.

Dani Shapiro

Our pain is a part of who we authentically are.

Dani Shapiro

I knew I wanted to be a writer before I knew that being a writer was possible.

Dani Shapiro

My desk is covered with talismans: pieces of rose quartz, wishing stones from a favorite beach.

Dani Shapiro

When it comes to the personal essays I write, I just convince myself that no one will ever read them.

Dani Shapiro

When we reach reflexively for something to dull an ache inside of us, in that very moment of reaching, we are hiding from our pain. We're storing it away. Tamping it down.

Dani Shapiro

I used to act in television commercials when I was a kid and a young adult.

Dani Shapiro

If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative.

Dani Shapiro

Sometimes when I'm at my desk, I'll realize that I have contorted myself completely, and I haven't moved for hours, and that my legs have fallen asleep. I am elsewhere, not in my body, not in the room, not in my house.

Dani Shapiro

I do strongly identify with being Jewish. I was raised Orthodox and had a childhood complicated by the fact that my father was deeply religious and my mother was not.

Dani Shapiro

One of the stranger things about me is that I was raised as an Orthodox Jew. I went to a yeshiva until I was thirteen years old and spoke fluent Hebrew.

Dani Shapiro

My parents made the decision never to focus on my looks, and I had no sense of myself as beautiful.

Dani Shapiro

I do whatever is necessary in order to maintain the equanimity we all need to withstand the disappointment and rejection that are the lot of every writer, no matter where we are in our careers.

Dani Shapiro

In order to write a memoir, I’ve sat still inside the swirling vortex of my own complicated history like a piece of old driftwood, battered by the sea. I’ve waited—sometimes patiently, sometimes in despair—for the story under pressure of conc...

Dani Shapiro

I try to remember that the job — as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy — of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it.

Dani Shapiro

It's essential to have sacred time for writing. All successful authors have some daily commitment to keep on-track and moving forward.

Dani Shapiro

With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.

Dani Shapiro

Music inspires me and puts me in the right mood, but to actually listen to it when I write - I find it gets in the way.

Dani Shapiro

I'm a full-time writer, which means I have the entire day to get my work done. But that can also be bad, because that means I have the entire day to get in my way.

Dani Shapiro

Author Bio

  • NameDani Shapiro
  • DescriptionAuthor
  • BornApril 10, 1962
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist