Each book is a new book

Michael Wood: Has writing fiction become easier for you over the years?

Paul Auster: No, I don’t think so. Each book is a new book. I’ve never written it before and I have to teach myself how to write it as I go along. The fact that I’ve written books in the past seems to play no part in it. I always feel like a beginner and I’m continually running into the same difficulties, the same blocks, the same despairs. You make so many mistakes as a writer, cross out so many bad sentences and ideas, discard so many worthless pages, that finally what you learn is how stupid you are. It’s a humbling occupation.

—interview

On writing as a physical experience

“[K]eyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page. Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.”

—Paul Auster (x)

Ah, yes, the joke

“Interestingly enough, the literary model I had in mind when I wrote those pieces [a collection of nonfiction stories called The Red Notebook] was the joke. The joke is the purest, most essential form of storytelling. Every word has to count.”

—Paul Auster (x)

An exact ratio!?!

“[P]oetry and experience should have an exact ratio. Astonishing experience doesn’t happen very often.”

—William Meredith (x)

On what we must do (and please excuse my failure to cite the translators)

“We must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

—Albert Camus

“‘We must cultivate our garden.'”

—Voltaire

(Edited to add:)

“We must love one another and die.”

—W. H. Auden

What writing is not

“Writing is not therapy. That’s the last thing it is.”

—Alice Notley (x)

Love or hate, either will do

“He once said that to write well about something you had to either love it or hate it very much[.]”

—Nathaniel Benchley on John Steinbeck (x)

On the discipline of the written word

“The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty. A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator. Of course, there are dishonest writers who go on for a little while, but not for long—not for long.”

—John Steinbeck (x)

Interesting perspective

“In the same way as I feel strangely about people my age who have never experienced a major bereavement, I feel concerned for people who have never truly fucked up their lives. Imagine having that virgin experience hanging over you somewhere in the future. I learned quickly how to pick myself up and start again. In fact, I became so practiced in the art of recovery that I have managed to fuck and unfuck my life up many times since.”

—Emily Cooper (x)

Interesting, probably true!

“I’m always going to be an stalwart defender of both high art and complete trash. I also personally think that the best way to really open yourself up to the highs of the former is to be open to the guiltless pleasures of the latter.”

—Tumblr user corpsebrigadier (x)