![]() Gertrude said, “I don’t look like that.” And Picasso replied, “You will.” And he was right. It reminds me of something Pablo Picasso was supposed to have said to Gertrude Stein while he was painting her portrait. It is simply this: a writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. I don’t try to be prophetic, as I don’t sit down to write literature. Social affairs are not generally speaking the writer’s prime concern, whether they ought to be or not it is absolutely necessary that he establish between himself and these affairs a distance which will allow, at least, for clarity, so that before he can look forward in any meaningful sense, he must first be allowed to take a long look back. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance. It always hides something else the writer should try to expose what it hides. You have to have the to protest the slogan, no matter how noble it may sound. I think what you have to do, which is the difficult thing about a writer, is avoid slogans. that’s a European approach, which never made any sense to me. I certainly can’t imagine art for art’s sake. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. from “ Autobiographical Notes,” in the Collected Essays from Library of America It is part of the business of the writer-as I see it-to examine attitudes, to go beneath the surface, to tap the source. That’s what I try to teach all young writers-take it out! Don’t describe a purple sunset, make me see that it is purple. from a 1979 interview published in The New York Times I’ve always felt that when a book ended there was something I didn’t see, and usually when I remark the discovery it’s too late to do anything about it. When you’ve finished a novel it means, “The train stops here, you have to get off here.” You never get the book you wanted, you settle for the book you get. in a 1976 interview with Jewell Handy Gresham And then one day something happens-it works. You tear it up and do it again and again. Usually it’s a matter of writing, recognizing it ain’t right or it won’t move. But in fact, it’s been gestating for a long, long time. Seems almost to come from the top of my head. in a 1984 interview with The Paris Review I’m speaking of the working process, which demands a certain amount of energy and courage (though I dislike using the word), and a certain amount of recklessness. I find writing gets harder as time goes on. from “The Discovery of What It Means To Be an American”
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