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If Dante was writing The Divine Comedy in 2013, he might very well have set part of it in the suburbs.
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Joshua Mohr
#Writing
#Might
#Comedy
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I want to be the kind of adult that keeps learning. I want to always be open to new experiences.
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Joshua Mohr
#Adults
#Want
#Kind
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I'm not a gamer. But I am very aware of the escapism of drugs. In my mind those kind of do the same thing. They dull us to the aches and pains of our status quo.
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Joshua Mohr
#Pain
#Drug
#Mind
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I don't think escaping is necessarily a problem, but we can get addicted to almost anything. If you're craving being in this other reality and you don't want to participate in your own reality, those are the times we have to start asking ourselves difficult questions.
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Joshua Mohr
#Reality
#Thinking
#Escaping
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The more we're doing to ensure we're following our joy and passion, that's when we really start to put the gas in our lives.
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Joshua Mohr
#Passion
#Joy
#Gas
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Hughes' debut novel, At Dawn, follows a former All-American wrestler, and is there any better metaphor for contemporary American life? We're all wrestling, tussling with the economy, no jobs, doing the best we can. Hughes doesn't flinch from the tough existential questions. He embraces them.
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Joshua Mohr
#Jobs
#Wrestling
#Dawn
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It's a beautiful aspect of narrative construction, hunting for the right images and metaphors to render our character's hearts/minds/souls as though they're ecosystems, full-fledged settings for a reader to inhabit like a place.
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Joshua Mohr
#Beautiful
#Heart
#Character
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Yes, things happened to me - brutal things - but I'm not going to give them so much clout by dwelling on them, empowering them to haunt my heart years after the events transpired. And no good comes from that. These ghosts don't need us to help them stay alive. If we're after real deal healing, these ghosts must desiccate.
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Joshua Mohr
#Real
#Healing
#Heart
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No matter what we've done, no matter the disappointments and sullied blunders, today is the opportunity to do right by ourselves.
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Joshua Mohr
#Disappointment
#Opportunity
#Done
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I always feel that as the author, once I know what a character is ashamed of, then I can go about making her truthful on the page.
--
Joshua Mohr
#Character
#Pages
#Truthful
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I'm a semi-failed writer, but I'm a capital-F Failed musician.
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Joshua Mohr
#Musician
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I just thought it was important that people knew right from the jump that I've got problems. But in all seriousness, that's a huge part of my writing process.
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Joshua Mohr
#Writing
#People
#Important
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The question why, at least in my life, often leads to despair. Why did this happen to me? Why didn't someone who claimed to love me treat me with respect, compassion, kindness? Etc. These questions never have answers. They are an ocean, and you'll never swim to the other side. Eventually, you'll tire and die.
--
Joshua Mohr
#Kindness
#Ocean
#Compassion
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Today is going to be free of the past. Today, the past can't hurt me.
--
Joshua Mohr
#Hurt
#Past
#Today
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In my life the right question is simply this: What can I do to be happy today?
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Joshua Mohr
#Today
#Right Questions
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Self-respect doesn't come naturally to me. I need to constantly remind myself and do the work to err on the side of self-respect, rather than self-punishment.
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Joshua Mohr
#Self
#Punishment
#Needs
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My tunnel vision allows me to have a longer work day than most writers. I'm thankful for that.
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Joshua Mohr
#Tunnels
#Vision
#Work Day
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Memoir is a unique opportunity to revisit yourself. I don't mean by memory. I mean in the revision process. You don't just write a chapter and that's it. You must constantly return to it. You must dote on it. And even if it's saying something ugly about who you are, you have to find the poetry in it. You have to find the poetry in yourself.
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Joshua Mohr
#Memories
#Writing
#Mean
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We have today and hopefully tomorrow to be the best version of ourselves.
--
Joshua Mohr
#Today
#Tomorrow
#Being The Best
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I'll never be the sort of author who sells that many copies. You'll never see a book of mine being sold on a table at Costco, between the extra-large jorts and a barrel of salsa. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll be indie till I die.
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Joshua Mohr
#Book
#Tables
#Way
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I like art that trusts its audience, that's written for readers who like to work hard. I like art that knows its readers are up to the challenge of interacting with difficult material.
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Joshua Mohr
#Art
#Hard Work
#Challenges
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I always joke that every novel is really about the same thing: one person's struggle against society.
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Joshua Mohr
#Struggle
#Novel
#Persons
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I'm a very tactile learner, so I need analog index cards, moving them all about, trying out various sequences for the book's architecture.
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Joshua Mohr
#Moving
#Book
#Trying
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I always wished to be a better planner. It seems more elegant, while my trial and error process is more akin to someone scratching an awful case of poison oak.
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Joshua Mohr
#Errors
#Trial And Error
#Poison
