“Praise and criticism seem to me to operate exactly on the same level. If you get a great review, it's really thrilling for about ten minutes. If you get a bad review, it's really crushing for ten minutes. Either way, you go on.”
Author details
Related authors
Other Ann Patchett Quotes
I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.
Ann Patchett 
56% of people like this quote
Part of it is living in Tennessee. I'm so out of the loop. And as a person, I'm out of the loop. I'm oblivious by nature.
Ann Patchett
53% of people like this quote
I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list.
Ann Patchett
52% of people like this quote
I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing it.
Ann Patchett
52% of people like this quote
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.
Ann Patchett
51% of people like this quote