Tea Obreht Writing Quotations

I do no writing while I'm in Belgrade visiting my grandma.

When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.

In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.

A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.

When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it.

What inspires me most to write is the act of traveling.