Ottessa Moshfegh Quotes

I was the first person in my family born in the United States. My mom is from Croatia, and my dad is from Iran. They met at music school in Belgium. I grew up as a pianist.

I love art because I feel that it's evidence of the great shared universal power. I like art that feels real, that cuts the bullshit.

I've always really enjoyed sharing my work with others. I find it really hard if I don't think the work will exist outside of my own apartment.

If you look at the horror genre, that work is all about making people uncomfortable by stimulating our fear of death.

You can't be a free spirit in a place that feels like it was built on lockdown.

For me writing isn't a mental exercise, it's barely even a literary exercise, it feels like a spiritual experience.

I hope that I'm the kind of person who would step in between somebody holding a gun at somebody else. I would like to be that stupid. I'd like to be that in love with life.

I don't like talking too much about my personal life, but it all goes into my work.

I had to brainwash myself, like what I was doing was going to be really, really good, and then just accept whatever happened.

I was really interested in piano and sort of discovered that I was a writer when I was about 13 and started writing. And it was my secret thing and my passion.

Anyway, I don't trust those people who poke around sad people's minds and tell them how interesting it all is up there. It's not interesting.

I had hard feelings around the holidays, the one time of year I couldn’t help but fall prey to the canned self-pity Christmas prescribes.