Claire Dederer:
The problem is, we don’t get to control how much we know about someone’s life. It’s something that happens to us... There is no longer any escaping biography. Even within my own lifetime, I’ve seen a massive shift. Biography used to be something you sought out, yearned for, actively pursued. Now it falls on your head all day long.
Germaine Greer:
I fucking hate biography. If you want to know about Charles Dickens, read his fucking books.
PS: Also from Dederer’s book Monsters, a zinger by Vladimir Nabokov:
The best part of a writer‘s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.
PPS: And in the spirit of her enquiry as to whether we are allowed to enjoy good art by blackguards and rapscallions:
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