Writers on Writing
The latest Bookforum has a cover piece by Vivian Gornick on Susan Sontag’s late writings. Here is a link to another piece in the same issue, “What Writers Talk About When They Talk About Writing.” The essay is by Albert Mobilio, and, although this is not available in the web version, there are boxed extracts from older interviews with writers. For example, the following from a Paris Review conversation with Dorothy Parker:
Interviewer: How do you name your characters?
Parker: The telephone book and from the obituary columns.
Interviewer: Do you keep a notebook?
Parker: I tried to keep one, but I never could remember where I put the damn thing. I always say I’m going to keep one tomorrow.
Interviewer: How do you get the story down on paper?
Parker: I wrote in longhand at first, but I’ve lost it. I use two fingers on the typewriter. I think it’s unkind of you to ask. I know so little about the typewriter that once I bought a new one because I couldn’t change the ribbon on the one I had.
Talking of writers talking about writing, read reports from the Jaipur literary festival here and here — and also how stories were to be found away from the festival on the streets outside .
