“There’s a parallel between the time my novel takes place and today, just as there is a parallel between Roosevelt and Obama. And if you want to be reassured, it’s reassuring to remember we have often endured a high level of uncivilized discourse and vitriol — Yes! We have!” Continue reading
“I love the world –the Mediterranean, the countryside, friends, wine and food, architecture, art, the riches of life. Why else does one write or paint, except to try to hold a little of that?” Continue reading
Be-Wilder v. [bewilder “to cause to lose one’s way, as in a wild or unknown place; to lead or drive astray”—O.E.D.]: to lead the Self and Others on Pixie-paths that wind ever deeper into the Unknown, to hear and follow the Call of the Wild Continue reading
“Well, contentment is possible, in life and in fiction, but happiness? Happiness is a madness. I mean, happily ever after? What’s that? What would that be like? That would be like a cartoon.” Continue reading
“My best description I can come up with for what it’s like to write a novel is that it is like going into your garage and trying to build a one-of-a-kind, custom musical instrument out of the spare parts you find there, while simultaneously composing the best possible music to play on that instrument. . . as you are learning what this instrument is capable of doing, you change the kind of music you envision you can play on it. There are possibilities that come up that you never imagined.” Continue reading
“There was too, after writing one novel, the very real question: can I write a second? The first time I had done something in ways that seemed curiously non-reproducible, not even recoverable. Before, one thing had mysteriously led to another, but how to make it happen again?” Continue reading
“Age eighty, (minus not quite three) thermometer eighty, (plus rather more than four) must be accepted as an excuse my very dear Anthony both by you and my highly valued correspondent for not having acknowledged your very precious packet earlier. I am in truth grown most woefully idle, and, worse still, most woefully lazy, and this symptom is both new and disagreeable to me.” Continue reading
Bloom 