English fiction was something I loved growing up, and it changed my life - it changed the trajectory of my life.
From Zadie Smith
Without the balancing context of everyday life, all you have is the news, and news by its nature is generally bad.
There is no bigger crime, in the English comic novel, than thinking you are right.
English, as a subject, never really got over its upstart nature. It tries to bulk itself up with hopeless jargon and specious complexity, tries to imitate subjects it can never be.
Working with great writers can be humbling and frightening, but it can also change you for good, forever.
Don't confuse honours with achievement.
You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you find real human beings begin to cautiously appear on your pages.
I lost many literary battles the day I read 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.' I had to concede that occasionally aphorisms have their power. I had to give up the idea that Keats had a monopoly on the lyrical.
Don't we all know why nerds do what they do? To get money, which leads to popularity, which leads to girls.
It might be useful to distinguish between pleasure and joy. But maybe everybody does this very easily, all the time, and only I am confused.
5 perspectives
4 perspectives
3 perspectives
1 perspectives