“I don't like the way question marks look. They're really ugly. They look like blots. At some other point in my life, I might have disliked them because I never knew how to properly apply them. Also commas, and whether they were outside the quote or inside the quote - that all seemed like an unnecessary pain in the ass.” WayLooksMightPainMarkUglyAssUnnecessaryQuestion Mark Author:John Edgar Wideman
“I really love James Joyce, Dubliners and other work. And I was interested in the way the dash was used in English topography - in his work particularly - and I realized there was no compulsion to use those ugly dot-dot curlicues all over the place to designate dialogue. I began to look around, and found writers who could make transitions quite clear by the language itself. I'm a bit of a maverick now. I'm always trying to push the medium.” WayTryingLooksUseUsedFoundLanguageBitsClearUglyI RealizedDialogueMediumsTransitionCompulsionAlways TryingDotsJoyceMaverickTopography Author:John Edgar Wideman
“Remember that a book is many drafts - mine certainly are. It's improvisation. It's as much jazz and the way we talk and the way I heard people preach coming up as it is writing.” PeopleWayWritingBookRememberHeardMinesJazzImprovisation Author:John Edgar Wideman
“I'm not a fearful person, but I'm a pretty pessimistic person. So some of my best times are waiting, anticipating. That's the way it always has been with me, whether anticipating a ball game, anticipating a relationship.” WayPersonsHas BeensGamesWaitingBallsFearfulPessimisticBest TimesBall Games Author:John Edgar Wideman
“I want to give the evidence in a way that is convincing, but I don't want to cheat.” WayWantGivingEvidenceCheatConvincing Author:John Edgar Wideman
“When it's played the way is supposed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, elevated above the floor, levitating the way oppressed peoples of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.” WayDreamHappensEarthImagineAirBasketballFlyingSupposed To BeOppressedFloatingGood BasketballPlaying Basketball Author:John Edgar Wideman
“Kids use words in ways that release hidden meanings, revel the history buried in sounds. They haven't forgotten that words can be more than signs, that words have magic, the power to be things, to point to themselves and materialize. With their back-formations, archaisms, their tendency to play the music in words--rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repetition--children peel the skin from language. Words become incantatory. Open Sesame. Abracadabra. Perhaps a child will remember the word and will bring the walls tumbling down.” WayChildrenPlayUseKidsRememberLanguageSoundMagicHavensWallSkinsForgottenTendenciesRhythmReleaseBuriedRhymeRepetitionFormationTumblingHidden MeaningLanguage WordsAlliterationTumbling DownAbracadabra Author:John Edgar Wideman
