Gregarious Expressions

Nathan Englander on writing “what you know”:

“When I was dreaming of being a writer from suburbia, I thought, what am I going to do, write novels about going to the mall? It took me a long time to think it through and I should’ve rethought the advice of write what you know. That doesn’t mean write what you experience. It’s about emotional knowledge. Like have you ever known sadness? Have you ever known longing? Have you ever wanted for something? Have you ever felt loved? You know, I don’t think there are any stories that you can’t write.”

via Committing to memory with author Nathan Englander « AZ Jewish Post.

Artistic revolt, innovation, experiment should not be met with hostility. They may disturb an established order or an artificial conventionality, but they may rescue us from death in life, from robot life, from boredom, from loss of the self, from enslavement.

via Anaïs Nin on Embracing the Unfamiliar and Encouraging Minority Writers | Brain Pickings.

Like this idea… been rethinking a lot of things I thought I knew or had made my mind up about lately only to discover they look different from here, from now. -ag

Munro is interested in how we get things wrong. Age she says, changes your perceptions “of what has happened – not just what can happen but what really has happened”. One of the ways her stories “turn out” is simply “different to what the main character thought all along”.

via Dear Life by Alice Munro – review | Books | The Guardian.