(Photo by Steve Rawley)
“Writers are a little below the clowns and a little above the trained seals.” — John Steinbeck
“To me, in a novel everything is real, and I really don’t care where the author got it, you know? But for readers, that is important, I understand. They love to know how much of it was autobiographical. Anybody who says they don’t write out of their own life is lying. Of course they do. All your experience is based out of your own life. But… Do you transform the material? And I think that’s what she did, and put such magic on it.” — Mark Childress, novelist (“Crazy in Alabama”). (Quoted from his interview about author Harper Lee on “American Masters” biography.)
“After awhile, those models sort of lift off and become their own people, rather than the people you originally thought of. And when you weave an entire network of lies… What you’re really doing, if you’re aiming to write literary fiction, is by telling lies, you’re trying to arrive at a deeper truth.” — Wally Lamb, novelist (“She’s Come Undone”). (Quoted from his interview about author Harper Lee on “American Masters” biography.)
“My publisher asked me to do it, but there’s a point at which your life is not interesting. I’d rather write fiction.” — Toni Morrison, novelist, (“Song of Solomon”) on why she’s not writing a memoir. (Quoted in The Plain Dealer of Cleveland.)