To endow the writer publicly with a good fleshly body, to reveal that he likes dry white wine and underdone steak, is to make even more miraculous for me, and of a more divine essence, the products of his art. Far from the details of his daily life bringing nearer to me the nature of his inspiration and making it clearer, it is the whole mystical singularity of his condition which the writer emphasizes by such confidences. For I cannot but ascribe to some superhumanly the existence of beings vast enough to wear blue pajamas at the very moment when they manifest themselves as universal conscience.
Topics ยป Writers and Writing
328 posts
In general I do not draw well with literary men -- not that I dislike them but I never know what to say to them after I have praised their last publication.
To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.
If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
The moving finger writes, and having written moves on. Nor all thy piety nor all thy wit, can cancel half a line of it.
I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.
You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two.