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Karen Thompson Walker Biography

Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles is the debut novel of American writer Karen Thompson Walker. It was published in June 2012 by Random House in the United States and Simon & Schuster in the United Kingdom. The book chronicles the fictional phenomenon of 'slowing', in which one Earth day takes longer to complete.

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Karen Thompson Walker Quotes

Our fears are an amazing gift of the imagination. . . a way of glimpsing what might be the future when there's still time to influence how that future will play out.

Fear, Future, Gift, Glimpsing, Imagination, Play

I kept quiet, but the knowledge gathered like a storm. I could see the future: My father wasn't coming back. And this one fact seemed to point to other facts and others still: Love frays and humans fail, time passes, eras end.

Eras, Fail, Father, Quiet, Storm

To be a good editor or a good writer, I think you really need to be a great reader first.

Editor, Editors, Good, Needs, Reader, Thinking

It requires a certain kind of bravery, I suppose, to choose the status quo. There's a certain boldness to inaction.

Boldness, Bravery, Certain, Choose, Kind

Who knows how fast a second-guess can travel? Who has ever measured the exact speed of regret?

Exact, Fast, Know How, Regret, Speed

I left my job in the fall, and now I can set my life up around writing instead of squeezing writing into my day; it's amazing to have that time, and I feel very lucky.

Day, Fall, Job, Jobs, Left, Writing

I wake up fairly early every day, by 8, for sure. Sunday is a lighter writing day than the weekdays, but I still wake up and write for about an hour, beginning right around 8. I definitely have coffee first, and then I start writing. I do think it's kind of hard to get the right level of concentration without coffee.

Coffee, Fairly, Sunday, Think, Writing

My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that imagined reader, which is a crucial part of learning to tell stories.

Empathize, Imagine, Imagined, Learning, Reader, Stories

I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

Beautiful, College, Loved, Writing

We were a different kind of Christian, the quiet, reasonable kind, a breed embarrassed by the mention of miracles.

Breed, Christian, Different, Embarrassed, Miracle

Even beauty, in abundance, turns creepy.

Abundance, Beauty, Creepy, Turns

It took me years to learn that sentences in fiction must do much more than stand around and look pretty.

Fiction, Looks, Pretty, Sentences, Years

I've become a collector of stories about unlikely returns: the sudden reappearance of the long-lost son, the father found, the lovers reunited after forty years. Once in awhile, a letter does fall behind a post office desk and lie there for years before it's finally discovered and delivered to the rightful address. The seemingly brain-dead sometimes wake up and start talking. I'm always on the lookout for proof that what is done can sometimes be undone.

Fall, Father, Lying, Rightful, Seemingly, Son

Sometimes death is proof of life. Sometimes decay points out a certain verve.

Certain, Decay, Proof, Sometimes

How much sweeter life would be if it all happened in reverse, if, after decades of disappointments, you finally arrived at an age when you had conceded nothing, when everything was possible.

Age, Arrived, Disappointment, Nothing, Sweeter, Would Be

There's a pleasure in being reminded of the value of ordinary life.

Ordinary, Ordinary Life, Pleasure, Reminded, Value

I feel like writing a book there's always a version in your head that's an amazing version, but then you write the version that you can write.

Book, Feels, Head, Like, Writing

Sometimes the saddest stories take the fewest words.

Saddest, Sometimes, Stories, Take, Words

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next?

Focus, Inspiration, Literature, Motivation, Question, Stories

Sentences or solutions occur to me in the shower, or while running on the treadmill, or riding on the subway.

Riding, Running, Shower, Subway

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