Life & Wisdom Quote by Lynn Abbey

"I'm always trolling for trivia" has the snap of a writer admitting, without apology, that creativity is less thunderbolt than scavenger hunt. Abbey’s verb choice matters: “trolling” isn’t passive browsing. It’s deliberate, slightly predatory, a practiced sweep through the world’s loose facts the way a fisher drags a lure through dark water. The line reframes trivia from “useless” to “usable,” suggesting that the raw material of fiction often starts as small, portable knowledge: an odd superstition, a medieval job title, a detail about ship rigging, a throwaway phrase overheard in a diner.

The subtext is craft discipline disguised as casualness. “Always” signals compulsion and training; the writer’s mind is on perpetual watch, turning daily life into a research expedition. There’s also a wry self-awareness here: Abbey knows “trivia” can sound frivolous, even nerdy, so she leans into it, claiming the label rather than defending it. That’s a cultural tell. Genre writers in particular have long been asked to justify their seriousness; embracing trivia is a way of asserting that world-building is built from precisely these “small” facts.

Contextually, the quote lands well before the internet turned trivia into an endless feed. Abbey’s posture comes from the older school of notebook writers: collecting details by reading widely, asking questions, eavesdropping, haunting libraries. The intent isn’t to impress with knowledge; it’s to stockpile sparks. Trivia becomes narrative leverage: the tiny, specific truth that makes an invented world feel like it has a past.