INTERVIEWER
This all sounds so difficult. Why do you do it? What does it give back?
LEBOWITZ
The rewards of any warrior. The word that best describes my feeling of having written is triumphant—triumphant on the level of Alexander the Great. Having overcome your worst fear, the thing you are most vulnerable to, that is the definition of heroic.Also, it’s such a worthwhile human activity. The most.
Finally, no soldier ever came to me and said, You have to be a writer, but it was decided long ago that it was a given. So when I’m writing it’s the only time I feel all right. It’s the only time I feel justified. Whenever I am doing anything else, which is most of the time, even if it is not something like robbing a bank, I feel felonious. Writing is what I’m supposed to be doing.
writers are so much more interesting than actors. if only the tabloids could figure this out. for shame.
ReplyDeleteOh but I'm so glad writers don't have an Us Weekly. It's hard for actors and musicians not to be twisted and destroyed by that kind of fame.
ReplyDelete