“I would ask the people who were generous toward my own work. After class one day a poetry professor said to me, "Hey, there's this guy Basho you would find interesting," and so I found Basho. A fiction teacher told me, "You ought to read Clarice Lispector if you're interested in that sort of in-between stuff," and then Lispector appeared. It's not magic. You just keep your eyes open.” PeopleIfsSaidEyeGuyAsksFoundStuffMy OwnInterestingFictionClassTeacherMagicOughtOne DayHeyGenerousProfessorsThis Guy Author:John D'Agata
“You're often looking at writing from writers who, for the most part, are working in forms that traditionally fit into other genres. But sometimes, in the midst of their better-known stuff, there's this wayward thing, and because it's wayward it isn't considered representative of their work, so it falls through the cracks.” WritingSometimesFormFallStuffKnownFitGenreMidstCracksRepresentatives Author:John D'Agata
“The best stuff that Cicero wrote, in the first century in Rome, were the Philippics, a series of speeches that he delivered against Marc Antony, whom he thought was irreparably dismantling the Republic of Rome. Those speeches are powerful because they're not only really pointed but they're thrillingly beautiful - and that's precisely what made them dangerous: the fact that people wanted to read them.” PeopleFirstsMadeFactsWantedBeautifulStuffPowerfulCenturyDangerousSpeechSeriesRepublicRomeAntony Author:John D'Agata
“Of course it's possible for political essays to be artful. I just want to call into question the dominance of content over form in the history of the essay. I want us to recognize that there's art involved in making this stuff, because we still don't approach the constructed nature of the essay with the same appreciation that we do poetry or fiction.” WantArtStillsFormPoliticalCoursesStuffFictionInvolvedApproachAppreciationEssaysWant UDominance Author:John D'Agata
“When I'm teaching, I'm not really doing my job if the student who's always comfortable doing wacko stuff all over the page keeps getting gold stars from me for doing wacko stuff all over the page. A riskier assignment for that student, who might be used to hiding behind a lot of formal armor, would be to try to do something straightforward, traditionally, in which they are much more directly laid bare for the reader.” IfsTryingMightWould BeJobsUsedStarsStuffBehindsTeachingStudentsReaderComfortablePagesGoldHidingFormalStraightforwardArmorAssignments Author:John D'Agata
