It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Some very plausible stuff is being written by women in a way that most men are not doing.
The moment a man sets his thoughts down on paper, however secretly, he is in a sense writing for publication.
I think throughout the 20th century, for some reason, serious writers increasingly had contempt for the average reader. You can really see this in the letters of such people as Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
I like to read away as much of the afternoon as possible, until real life rears its ugly head.
I'm kind of concerned about 'Ego & Hubris' because I'm thinking that people will read it and maybe even be entertained by it, but at the end of it, you know, they'll wonder, 'Why did this guy write this? What was the point of it?'
Beauty breeds beauty; truth triggers truth. The cure for writer's block is therefore to read.
Personally I don't like it when writers become excessively proscriptive about the way that people read their books.
It's too bad for us 'literary' enthusiasts, but it's the truth nevertheless - pictures tell any story more effectively than words.
I think printed fiction is what women read.
From an early age, I had the idea that writing was truth-telling. It's on the record. Everybody can see it. Maybe it goes back to the sacred origins of literature - the holy book. There's nothing holy about it for me, but it should be serious, and it should be totally transparent.