I never thought of myself as either a woman or a man. I thought of myself as a person who was born to a writer, who was doomed to be a writer. |
I see myself as traditional even though I know you see my work as experimental. I don't really consider Sterne, Joyce, and Proust experimental either because the tradition of their writing goes back a long way. Traditional. The Grand Tradition. |
I think most people don't like others who, without a voice of their own, emulate the other. I certainly don't want anybody just to pick up my thoughts and hand them back to me. |
I think that the style is the writing, a beautiful sense of style. And if you don't have it, it doesn't matter what you write, it doesn't really make any difference. I'm not speaking of realistic novels now, but of the pseudo-poetic novel or short story. |
I think the category between fiction and non-fiction is nothing. The poetry of non-fiction is as fabulous as any poetry you could ever write in fiction. Poets have greatly influenced me. The only difference between the novel as poem and the lyric as poem is the difference in length. |
I think there is a rage against women. I've come to see that now although at the time I did not notice it. I was preoccupied with my teaching and my writing. |
I was not influenced by Joyce although he's a great writer, and I love his work. I was influenced by Saint Augustine. |
I would never write realistic prose. I don't like people who try to write in a poetic style, but in the course of their book abandon it for realism, and weave back and forth like drunkards between the surreal and the real. |
I would say my theme has always been paradise lost, always the lost cause, the lost leader, the lost utopia. |
I would teach from nine to four, sleep an hour, and write from six until midnight, night after night. |
I'm as much influenced by Joseph Smith and the Mormons as I am, more so, than by Eliot. Actually, I'm much more influenced by the poetry of the Mormons. |
I'm quite sure that most writers would sustain real poetry if they could, but it takes devotion and talent. |
I've been willing to go for years without publishing. That's been my career. |
If there is no certain reality, the idea of following a leader must be scrutinized. |
If you know anything about James Whitcomb Riley, you know that Little Orphan Annie is one of the most fantastic characters who ever lived in America before Charlie Chaplin. |