The historical background is one of the easier aspects of writing a novel. Far more difficult is dreaming up the smaller, character-based scenes, scenes that rise entirely from one's own imagination.
From Ethan Canin
One of my favorite ways to find fictional inspiration, by the way, is to browse historical timelines. I also like world atlases - any country with a squiggly coastline seems to inspire me, as do visual dictionaries, those reclusive creatures of the reference shelf.
I no longer practice medicine, but I can say that, for me, medicine was easier - and certainly less emotionally turbulent - than writing.
No one knows why books do well.
It's nice when critics say 'Emperor of the Air' is an important book of stories.
Fame is a problem of perspective.
I was never writing for commercial success. It's nice that it has come, but it is not important.
In medical school, you're taught to write in this convoluted, Latinate way. I knew the vocabulary as well as anyone, but I would write kidney instead of nephric. I insisted on using English.
I don't have a pen name, so I'm thinking of getting a doctor's name. What would you call that, a stethoscope name?
I like certain people's work better than my own.
9 perspectives
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