Quote

The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns.

I think it's a great document of John Stevens' originality. At that time he was already much more fully formed in his conception than I was. I was sort of struggling to keep up, and sometimes it's pretty obvious.

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.

So I think a writer should write what he loves, the people he relates to.

You get a letter from her agency embracing you into the family that says, 'It is our goal now to help you achieve your dream of being a songwriter, in John's memory.'

What I said about John was that he liberated me from my anxieties about writing in a correct, acceptable way.

In my first book, 'A Return to Love', I wrote about things in the outer world that need to change - how we need to ameliorate deep poverty, heal the earth, end war.

'The Ballad of Black Tom' was written, in part, during the latest round of arguments about H. P. Lovecraft's legacy as both a great writer and a prejudiced man. I grew up worshipping the guy, so this issue felt quite personal to me.

I think the purpose of the writer is to help us see. The writer is someone who can perhaps have the joy of helping others see.

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.