Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Words about words

...repetition in fiction is the necessary concomitant of having something worthwhile to say.
—John Irving

It’s an unfortunate thing, but it turns out that the perfect state of mind to edit your own novel is two years after it’s published...
—Zadie Smith

5 comments:

expat@large said...

I think Irving has pretty much said all the worthwhile things that ANYONE needs to say about wrestling, bears, transexuals, etc... Ever...

Dick Headley said...

There's a lot of truth in that.

Robert Swipe said...

"My west window has all the elegance of Chaucer with none of the concommitant crudities of the period..."

Peter Sellers as Sir Eric Goodness...in All our Yesterdays Tomorrow Today by Lauwrence Tattigan.

;)

xxx
'Berta

wv: hanic (...on the streets of Hirmingham?)

Valerie said...

So the Zadie Smith quote is the best excuse I've found yet to avoid editing my first novel... it isn't published yet!

I keep forgetting to tell you (or maybe I told you, but forgot) that we made your Noughties book a centerpiece of our New Year's Eve party. A big banner read "FAREWELL TO THE NOUGHTIES" (with "WELCOME TO THE TEENIES" on the reverse) and your book was placed, er, well. Honestly this was with good intent. In the loo, where many people read from it over the course of the evening (about 8 hours' worth of party in all), and many commented upon it.

Possibly I will be sorry I told you this.

Tim F said...

I take that as a compliment, although it's not a classic bog book, because the chapters are too long. Unless, of course, you've got a real problem...