Gabriel Garcia Marquez; thoughts on using tape recorders

Interviewer: How do you feel about using the tape recorder?

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The problem is that the moment you know the interview is taped, your attitude changes. In my case I immediately take a defensive attitude. As a journalist, I feel that we still haven’t learned how to use a tape recorder to do an interview. The best way, I feel, is to have a long conversation without the journalist taking any notes. Then afterward he should reminisce about the conversation and write it down as an impression of what he felt, not necessarily using the exact words expressed. Another useful method is to take notes and then interpret them with a certain loyalty to the person interviewed. What ticks you off about the tape recording everything is that it is not loyal to the person who is being interviewed, because it even records and remembers when you make an ass of yourself. That’s why when there is a tape recorder, I am conscious that I’m being interviewed; when there isn’t a tape recorder, I talk in an unconscious and completely natural way.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez from a 1981 interview; ‘The Paris Review Interviews vol II’.

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Thoughts on writing…..Robert Stone

From a 1985 interview with Robert Stone; ‘The Paris Review Interviews vol I’.

I use the white space. I’m interested in precise meaning and in reverberation, in associative levels. What you’re trying to do when you write is to crowd the reader out of his own space and occupy it with yours, in a good cause. You’re trying to take over his sensibility and deliver an experience that moves from mere information.

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It is what it is.

Things happen when you’re alone. It’s more challenging to live in the moment. The mind can drift away too easily. But when you do relax, then the recesses of memory begin to unfold, illuminating your present. Your past. Doors open. The magnetism of self-discovery draws you into rooms full of clarity. It is uncomfortable at first. Unavoidable. This understanding of intangibles. Complexities are reduced to simple algorithms. Like puzzle pieces they click together. Loose threads are woven. The longer you meditate and reflect, the more you realize and accept. It is what it is.

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One of the best toasts ever!

Champagne for all my real friends and real pain for all my sham friends!

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William Faulkner on the best environment for a writer.

Interviewer: Then what would be the best environment for a writer?

Faulkner: Art is not concerned with environment either; it doesn’t care where it is. If you mean me, the best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it’s the perfect milieu for an artist to work in. It gives him perfect economic freedom; he’s free of fear and hunger; he has a roof over his head and nothing whatever to do except keep a few simple accounts and go once every month and pay off the local police. The place is quiet during the morning hours, which is the best time of the day to work. There’s enough social life in the evening, if he wishes to participate, to keep him from being bored; it gives him a certain standing in this society; he has nothing to do because the madam keeps the books; all the inmates of the house are females and would defer to him and call him “sir”. All the bootleggers in the neighborhood would call him “sir”. And he could call the police by their first names. So the only environment the artist needs is whatever peace, whatever solitude, and whatever pleasure he can get at not too high a cost. All the wrong environment will do is run his blood pressure up; he will spend more time being frustrated or outraged. My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whiskey. (William Faulkner interview 1956 in ‘The Paris Review Interviews vol II’)

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Who has no burdens? Everyone is under pressure.

Superimposition is the universal law. Who is free? No one is free. Who has no burdens? Everyone is under pressure. The very rocks, the waters of the earth, beasts, men, children – everyone has some weight to carry. This idea was extremely clear to him at first. Soon it became rather vague, but It had a great effect nevertheless, as if someone had given him a valuable gift.   (Saul Bellow….. ‘A Father-To-Be’)

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Thoughtlessness leads to totalitarianism….Hannah Arendt

As politics descends into post truth madness in various countries around the world, it’s a good time to revisit some profound thinkers who examined freedom and totalitarianism. Chief amongst them is Hannah Arendt. The questions she asked are so relevant today. Why did the great evil of the 20th century come about? How could totalitarianism have happened? How can freedom and plurality be protected? The core and enduring message in one of her cerebral books ‘The Human Condition’ begins with a simple proposition: “It is nothing more than to think what we are doing.” Thoughtlessness, she concluded towards the end of her life, creates the conditions for evil. ”There are no dangerous thoughts. Thinking itself is dangerous……it is what makes people free to change the world.” (loosely paraphrased from an Economist review)

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The forest preacher

The preacher stood proudly in front of his altar and looked out to the assembled gathering. His confident demeanour grew from a journey of much suffering and patience. Having fled his homeland to escape the murdering communists, his arrival at Pier 21, gateway to this new land of opportunity and freedom, presented him a unique challenge. The escape had focused his life’s purpose. It was to bring the word of his Lord and creator to his fellow man. Life for this teacher was nearing its end. At least on this earthly plane. He understood this and anticipated the next passage with an open heart. His listeners were only just beginning their journey. And so it was that he brought them together under the forest canopy, if only for an hour. To spend time together. In nature’s glory. To reflect on their place and purpose. To give them some sense of who they were and guide them. He knew he could not reach them all but some would listen and reflect. And so he began with the familiar verse: Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…..

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Musings

Things always change. That’s just life. You can fight it or you accept it. The difference is, if you accept it, you get to do other things. If you fight it, you’re stuck in the same spot forever…..David Wroblewski; ‘The Story of Edgar Sawtelle’.

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More musings on the art of writing

From a Paul Auster interview, 2003.

Each book I’ve written has started off with what I’d call a buzz in the head. A certain kind of music or rhythm, a tone. Most of the effort involved in writing a novel for me is trying to remain faithful to that buzz, that rhythm. It’s a highly intuitive business. You can’t justify it or defend it rationally, but you know when you’ve struck a wrong note, and you’re usually pretty certain when you’ve hit the right one.

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