Brandon Taylor
American novelist and critic, author of Real Life, The Late Americans and Minor Black Figures; writes the newsletter sweater weather on literature and culture.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Brandon Taylor did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsYou don't have to overcome your fear in order to do things that are hard or which frighten you. You can do them scared.
↗labyrinthmaxxing and minotaur hoursblgtylr.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
The story we tell about a life is not the life itself; life exists only in the present moment.
Their wordsThe story of a life is not the life itself. Life is in the moment.
↗labyrinthmaxxing and minotaur hoursblgtylr.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI would argue that what makes fiction feel like fiction is a certain degree of contrivance.
↗labyrinthmaxxing and minotaur hoursblgtylr.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsI think it is dangerous to narrativize your life, going around acting like you're in a story with beats and arcs and trajectories.
↗i quit reading and almost diedblgtylr.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI have accepted the reality that hard work does not mean that there will be a pay off for that hard work.
↗i quit reading and almost diedblgtylr.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut you know, sometimes, improvement is only legible when you stop looking for it.
↗i quit reading and almost diedblgtylr.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 7 months earlier
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Their wordsthis sort of thing is only possible if you view other people as abstractions more than people.
↗american symbolismblgtylr.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsDying is the ultimate form of virality. The ultimate anointing in the religion of attention.
↗american symbolismblgtylr.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsthere are no cliches in actual human life. Cliché is an aspect of narrative, and life is not a narrative.
↗american symbolismblgtylr.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsI know that this is a contested idea, but my favorite books of the last five years have all been books of criticism, so...I mean, it's literature to me!
↗writing with your eyeballsblgtylr.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut for me, style is always an external manifestation of a disposition toward life.
↗writing with your eyeballsblgtylr.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI believe that Cusk's own style apes the externalities of W.G. Sebald's style without carrying over his internals.
↗writing with your eyeballsblgtylr.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsAmerican tennis coaches do not want to get fired. They want you to continue to pay them.
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Their wordsAmericans are mean, but fragile. Bullies, but babies. They are right, always, but also skeptical of every one else.
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Our reading
Relying more and more on one's existing strengths eventually stops being a winning strategy.
Their wordsThere comes a time when you have to realize that more of the same aspect of yourself isn't always a winning strategy.
- 2 weeks earlier
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Our reading
Men's tennis shots tend to carry more spin and arc than women's, who tend to hit flatter.
Their wordsWomen hit flatter balls. Men on average tend to hit with more shape, more arc, more spin.
↗why i played tennis on book tourblgtylr.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsAccountability threads work! It brings me no pleasure to say this.
↗why i played tennis on book tourblgtylr.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece