{"author":"Susan Orlean","author_id":"Susan+Orlean","total_quotes":18,"quotes":[{"text":"You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["writing-advice","writing"],"id":3258,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"What's funny is that the idea of popularity - even the use of the word 'popular' - is something that had been mostly absent from my life since junior high. In fact, the hallmark of life after junior high seemed to be the shedding of popularity as a central concern.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["life","my life","idea "],"id":16866,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"Television wasn't getting rid of animals, but they were no longer cast as creatures that were omniscient and heroic. They were talking horses like Mr Ed or an absurdist pig like Arnold Ziffle...Just like the heroic animals in silent films became comedians in talkies, animals on television were becoming jesters, something Rin Tin Tin had never been.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["dogs","hollywood","rin-tin-tin","silent-films","talkies","television"],"id":18330,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"I want a chainsaw very badly, because I think cutting down a tree would be unbelievably satisfying. I have asked for a chainsaw for my birthday, but I think I'll probably be given jewelry instead.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["tree","jewelry","want "],"id":48784,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"Okay, fuck the sundial. We'll just go straight and eventually we'll get there. What I mean is that we'll get somewhere. Out of here. I mean, logically, we have to get out as long as we walk straight. I've done this millions of times. Whenever everything's killing me, I just say to myself, screw it, and go straight ahead.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["advice","orchid"],"id":58724,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"I have long been one of those tedious people who rails against the coronation of 'student-athletes.' I have heard the argument that big-time athletics bring in loads of money to universities. I don't believe the money goes anywhere other than back into the sports teams, but that's another story.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["money","believe","people "],"id":121957,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"I wanted a Fakahatchee ghost orchid, in full bloom, maybe attached to a gnarled piece of custard apple tree, and I wanted its roots to spread as broad as my hand and each root to be only as wide as a toothpick. I wanted the bloom to be snow-white, white as sugar, white as lather, white as teeth. I knew its shape by heart, the peaked face with the droopy mustache of petals, the albino toad with its springy legs. It would not be the biggest or the showiest or the rarest or the finest flower here, except to me, because I wanted it.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["botany","desire"],"id":157051,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"My ace in the hole as a human being used to be my capacity for remembering birthdays. I worked at it. Whenever I made a new friend, I made a point of finding out his or her birthday early on, and I would record it in my Filofax calendar.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["friend","finding","human "],"id":190780,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"Winter in the country is very white. There is black grit on all the shoulders of the roads and on the big mounds from the plows, and all the cars are filthy, but the fields are dazzling and untouched and pristine.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["winter","roads","black "],"id":201285,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"},{"text":"I have no idea how to get in touch with anyone anymore. Everyone, it seems, has a home phone, a cell phone, a regular e-mail account, a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and a Web site. Some of them also have a Google Voice number. There are the sentimental few who still have fax machines.","author":"Susan Orlean","tags":["cell phone","voice","google "],"id":223101,"author_id":"Susan+Orlean"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":18,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}