Paul Auster
‘Sometimes,’ he says, sounding suddenly reflective, ‘I think of that wonderful line by George Opren, the great American poet, that I used in The Invention of Solitude. He’s talking about the apparent suddenness with which we grow old, and he says, “What a strange thing to happen to a little boy”. That’s it exactly. You’re trying to resurrect that little boy.’
He thinks about this some more and his thoughts lead him back to the act of writing, to those long stretches in that lonely room. ‘Why do I do this?’ he says. ‘The only answer I can come up with is that somehow I think that by living my life as a writer, I am living my life to the fullest. Even if I have a day when I sit there crossing out sentences, tearing up pieces of paper and have advanced not one jot, I can still stand up from my chair and say, “Well, I’ve given it my best”. And if you can say that at the end of every working day, you feel like there’s some reason to go on living.’
in The Guardian.
[x]#412 fan maandag 16 februari 2004 @ 19:40:05
