Sex is hard to write about because you lose the universal and succumb to the particular. We all have our different favorites. Good sex is imposible to write about. Lawrence and Updike have given it their all, and the result is still uneasy and unsure. It may be that good sex is something fiction just can’t do – like dreams. Most of the sex in my novels is absolutely disastrous. Sex can be funny, but not very sexy.

Martin Amis

Do I think writing is a dangerous activity? Writing can be very bad for one’s mental health. It looks innocent enough from outside, but one a man or a woman is living every day in an imaginary world, it’s often difficult to separate your own reality from the imaginary reality you’re writing about.

Paul Auster

One of the things I learned from Virginia Woolf is that every day in everybody’s life contains just about everything we need to know about human life, more or less the way the single strand of DNA contains the blueprint for the entire organism. And I believe that if we look carefully enough at anybody, and look with enough compassion and discernment, and bring to that person a certain merciless clarity, we have a story by definition. I never think in terms of message. I don’t know anything my readers don’t know.

Michael Cunningham

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Sunt trei declaratii dintr-o carte care aduna, pe teme, raspunsurile unor scriitori la problemele lor: ce le e greu sa (de)scrie, de unde se inspira (fura, in sensul bun) in structura, de la ce pornesc la drum cu o noua carte, cum reactioneaza la editari, cum fac fatza disperarii ca pe hirtie nu le iese ce au in cap etc etc.

Cartea se numeste Off The Page (writers talk about beginnings, endings and everything in between), precum o rubrica din Washigton Post in care Carol Burns intervieveaza on line (cu ajutorul cititorilor) pe unii dintre cei mai de succes scriitori.
Carol Burns e editorul acestei carti, citeva dintre interviurile ei din Washington Post on line, le gasiti aici.

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Raspunsul lui Amis despre cit de greu e sa scrii despre sex mi-a adus aminte de o conversatie cu Gilbert Adair, domnul care printre altele a scris The Dreamers. Adair imi povestea cu multa pasiune ce greu este sa descrii dragostea pe care un barbat o are pentru un copil si sa pastrezi in personaj umanitatea. Vorbea despre tehnica de scris, despre unghiuri si sentimente, compara iubirea respectiva cu orice alta iubire. Era, pentru el, ultimul tabu ramas nedoborit in literatura erotica.