Tom Drury Quotes

Powerful Tom Drury for Daily Growth

About Tom Drury

Tom Drury is an American novelist and short story writer whose poignant narratives have captured the hearts of readers with their keen observations on small-town America and its inhabitants. Born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1963, Drury spent his formative years in small towns across Iowa and Wisconsin before moving to Chicago to pursue a degree in film at Columbia College. Drury's work is heavily influenced by his Midwestern upbringing and his fascination with the lives of ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances. His debut novel, "The End of Vandalism" (1998), introduced readers to the fictional town of East Moline, Illinois, and a cast of characters that populate many of Drury's subsequent works. The book was a critical success and established Drury as an important voice in contemporary American literature. In 2003, Drury published his second novel, "Pink Water," which follows the lives of several interconnected characters in East Moline. His third novel, "H Hunting Inc." (2010), further explores the themes of family, identity, and the human condition through a unique blend of humor and melancholy. Drury's short stories have been collected in three volumes: "The New World" (1998), "Lost Laysen" (2004), and "Norwegian Psycho" (2016). These collections showcase Drury's ability to craft captivating narratives within a limited scope, often focusing on a single event or moment in the life of a character. Drury continues to write and live in Chicago with his wife, poet Ann Beattie, and their daughter. His work has been translated into multiple languages and adapted for stage and screen. One of Drury's most memorable quotes encapsulates his unique approach to storytelling: "I want to tell a story that feels true without being true." This quote serves as a testament to the power of fiction in illuminating the human experience, a power that Drury wields masterfully in his writing.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The world moves on whether you move with it or not."

This quote emphasizes that time and change are constant, regardless of personal actions or choices. It underscores the importance of adapting and evolving to avoid being left behind in life. The message encourages proactivity and resilience, suggesting that standing still may lead to irrelevance or stagnation.

"We don't have to understand everything in order to love someone."

Tom Drury's quote emphasizes that our ability to comprehend or fully understand someone is not a prerequisite for genuine affection towards them. Love can transcend the need for complete understanding, as it often originates from feelings of empathy, compassion, and connection rather than solely intellectual comprehension. This idea reminds us that love encompasses various dimensions and invites us to embrace people with all their complexities and mysteries.

"It's impossible to predict how life will turn out."

Tom Drury's quote, "It's impossible to predict how life will turn out," emphasizes the inherent unpredictability of life. It suggests that no matter our plans, aspirations, or expectations, life has a way of taking unexpected turns. This reminder encourages us to embrace the unknown and accept the fluidity of life's journey, rather than attempting to control it, as our futures are not set in stone.

"I think people are always a mystery to themselves as well as others."

This quote by Tom Drury highlights the idea that humans are complex entities, full of hidden emotions, thoughts, and motivations that they may not even fully understand or recognize themselves. We often present different faces to the world, masking our true selves in various ways. As we grow and evolve, we also change and learn more about ourselves, but there is always a layer of mystery that remains within us, making us an enigma, even to ourselves. This intricate nature of human beings is what Drury suggests when he says "people are always a mystery to themselves as well as others."

"No one ever really leaves you, they just become part of the background."

This quote suggests that even when people physically leave our lives, their influence and memories remain with us, shaping who we are and becoming an integral part of our personal history. They might no longer be actively involved, but their presence lingers in the tapestry of our experiences, forming a vital part of our background.

I like the writing life, but it's not something that always makes enough money.

- Tom Drury

Money, Always, Like, Enough Money

I don't do nonfiction anymore. Eventually, you just feel constrained by the facts. You want to go where the words take you, and people's actual lives don't always conform. And you can't know them that well.

- Tom Drury

Always, Actual, Lives, Nonfiction

Very few things are totally devoid of any possibility of humor. If you are aware of that possibility and alive to the scene becoming that way, then it just happens naturally. That's what I feel living is like, too. I find a lot of things that make me smile or make me laugh over the course of the day.

- Tom Drury

Alive, Becoming, Very, Make Me Laugh

Rather than writing about international events, I write about individual lives. There is elation and sadness, death and birth, love and jealousy, co-operation and betrayal. All the great emotional transactions that happen wherever people come together.

- Tom Drury

Love, Death, Elation, Wherever

I really, honest to God, didn't know what to read until I was out of college and living in Boston, and someone said, 'Well, why don't you read Hemingway?' And I thought, 'OK. I guess I'll try this Hemingway fellow.'

- Tom Drury

College, Thought, Boston, OK

My dad read, I think, the Perry Mason mysteries and Zane Grey and some humor compendiums... And then at one point, the bookmobile started coming to town. That was really cool. I mean, that was when I read my first Raymond Carver story. I think that was probably 1969 or so. I must have been 13.

- Tom Drury

Some, Been, I Think, Perry

I go back to a very specific aspect of the Midwest - small towns surrounded by farmland. They make a good stage for what I like to write about, i.e., roads and houses, bridges and rivers and weather and woods, and people to whom strange or interesting things happen, causing problems they must overcome.

- Tom Drury

Small, Surrounded, Very, Causing

I think, most of us, when we look back over our lives, see perhaps moments when everything was dangerous and precarious. We're making all these mistakes, and yet somehow we make it through. It's the making it through that that interests me. To go through the valley of trouble and come out the other side. That's what we all have to do.

- Tom Drury

Through, Other, I Think, Precarious

My life in the town I grew up in was much quieter than 'The End of Vandalism.' Part of the reason I think I wrote it was because it was too damn quiet when I was young, and I wanted people to come out and talk. And they do. There's so much dialogue in 'The End of Vandalism.'

- Tom Drury

My Life, Reason, I Think, In The End

I don't really think in terms of making something that is going to be bought everywhere, because I don't read those things. My writing is a process in which I try my best to make good sentences and a sequence of events that is compelling and believable.

- Tom Drury

Best, Sentences, Compelling, Sequence

I tend to write about towns because that's what I remember best. You can put a boundary on the number of characters you insert into a small town. I tend to create a lot of characters, so this is a sort of restraint on the character building I do for a novel.

- Tom Drury

Small, I Remember, Boundary, Restraint

I grew up in Swaledale, in Iowa. Its population was 220 when I was growing up, and it's probably 150 now. I lived in town and sometimes worked on the farms outside of town in the summers.

- Tom Drury

Iowa, Town, Summers, Farms

I think the book that really kind of woke me up a little bit when I was starting to write was 'Winesburg, Ohio' by Sherwood Anderson. I was in grad school at Brown, going for an M.A. in creative writing. Those stories seemed to me to be doing away with pretty writing.

- Tom Drury

Doing, Away, I Think, Creative Writing

I don't think of my characters as bumbling. I think that trouble is what drives a novel, both big troubles and small troubles, and whatever people try to do in life, there are a series of stumbling-blocks in the way, and I think that makes for interesting reading. I think of them as doing their best with the roadblocks that they're given.

- Tom Drury

Small, Doing, Big, Troubles

I do get very involved in making a scene work without giving too much thought about how it affects the overall, which I think is hard to know in any case.

- Tom Drury

Think, Very, Which, Overall

The past has an undeniable grip on everyone, except, perhaps, amnesiacs.

- Tom Drury

Perhaps, Undeniable, Grip

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