“I want to fall in love with beautiful women of all races. Rescue somebody every now and then, improve my painting, and improve my sentence structure. If I can make a living doing that stuff, that's great, and I will keep doing it, and they can do whatever they want with my image. I couldn't care less.” IfsWantI CanCareBeautifulFallStuffCan DoRacePaintingStructureFalling In LoveSentencesNow And ThenRescueBeautiful WomenWanting To Fall In LoveSentence StructureI Want To Fall In Love Author:William T. Vollmann
“You could imagine writing about a prostitute, for instance, but if you haven't spent time with prostitutes then you're going to get all these details wrong. But if you have a lot of sex with prostitutes and you're friends with prostitutes and you interview prostitutes, then maybe after many, many years you might be able to create prostitute characters.” IfsWritingYearsCharacterMightAbleSexImagineHavensDetailsInstanceInterviews Author:William T. Vollmann
“Whereas if I want to create a prostitute character now from memories of different prostitutes and inventing stuff, I can say, "this could happen," "this is quite plausible." But I don't feel I know enough about border life to do the latter.” IfsKnowsWantFeelsI CanDifferentEnoughCharacterHappensStuffMemoriesBordersLatterInventingPlausible Author:William T. Vollmann
“[Ernest ]Hemingway always said, "Write about what you know." I think you can do that, and if you want to write about what you don't know, you can. It just takes a lot more work.” IfsThinkingKnowsWantWritingSaidCan Do Author:William T. Vollmann
“I think that we're all, as human beings, so limited. If we want to write about ourselves, that's fairly easy. And if we write about our friends or our families, we can do that. But if we want to project ourselves somewhere beyond our personal experience we're going to fail unless we get that experience or we borrow it from others.” IfsThinkingWantWritingHumansEasyCan DoHuman BeingsFailingProjectsOur FamilyPersonal Experiences Author:William T. Vollmann
“If this advertisement be not sufficient, I can only protrude my wormlike tendrils of apology, craving forbearance on the grounds that a writer must write about what he knows, and since I know nothing about any subject it scarcely matters where I dabble.” IfsKnowsWritingI CanMatterSubjectsSufficientApologyCravingAdvertisementsForbearance Book:Butterfly Stories: A Novel Source: Butterfly Stories: A Novel
“Are you a censor? Do you tell people not to say “girl”? Shame on you! If nothing offends you, you’re a saint or you’re psychotic. If a few things offend you, deal with them--fairly. If you’re often offended by things, you’re probably a self-righteous asshole and it’s too bad you weren’t censored yourself--by your mother in an abortion clinic.” PeopleIfsSelfMotherGirlDealsShameSaintAbortionRighteousOffendedPsychoticSelf RighteousClinicCensoredShame On You Author:William T. Vollmann
“Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the pretense that life is what we want it to be may conceivably bring about the desired condition. Hence religious parables, socialist realism, Nazi propaganda. And if this story likewise crawls with reactionary supernaturalism, that might be because its author longs to see letters scuttling across ceilings, cautiously beginning to reify themselves into angels. For if they could only do that, then why not us?” IfsWantWellsMayStoriesMightLife IsCausesReligiousFictionConditionsAngelLettersAgreeMereCriticsPropagandaWhy NotFalsehoodRealismSocialistNaziPornographyCeilingsPretenseReactionariesProtagonistsParablesNazi Propaganda Book:Europe Central Source: Europe Central
“I wish I could go back and rewrite my first book, You Bright and Risen Angels; I could do a better job. But in the meantime, nobody knows as much about my books as I do. Nobody has the right but me to say which words go into my books or get deleted or edited. When I'm dying, I'll smile, knowing I stood up for my books. If I die with more money, that wouldn't bring a smile to my face. Unless I got better drugs or more delicious-looking nurses.” IfsKnowsFirstsBookJobsFacesDiesWishKnowingDyingDrugAngelNurseMore MoneyDeliciousRisenNobody KnowsStood UpBetter JobsEdited Author:William T. Vollmann
