I mean, every novel's a historical novel anyway. But calling something a historical novel seems to put mittens on it, right? It puts manners on it. And you don't want your novels to be mannered.
Colum MccannRead
The contemporary American novelist benefits in a way from being ignored. It makes you angrier and makes you want to go into all of those places where you shouldn't.
Interpretation
Being overlooked can fuel a writer's passion and drive for exploration and expression.
Colum McCann suggests that contemporary American novelists often find themselves in a position where their work goes unnoticed, which can ignite a sense of anger and rebellion within them. This overlooked state encourages them to delve into unconventional themes and places in their writing, pushing the boundaries of their creativity and exploration.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the struggles of modern authors at a literary festival.
I mean, every novel's a historical novel anyway. But calling something a historical novel seems to put mittens on it, right? It puts manners on it. And you don't want your novels to be mannered.
Goodness was more difficult than evil. Evil men knew that more than good men. That's why they became evil. That's why it stuck with them. Evil was for those who could never reach the truth. It was a mask for stupidity and lack of love. Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.
She takes another long haul, lets the smoke settle in her lungs-- she has heard somewhere that cigarettes are good for grief. One long drag and you forget how to cry. The body too busy dealing with the poison.
It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful.
It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from.
And I suddenly think, as I look across the table at him, that these are the days as they will be. This is the future as we see it. The swerve and the static. The confidence and the doubt.
Poems - crystallizations of the universal play of analogy, transparent objects which, as they reproduce the mechanism and the rotary motion of analogy, are waterspouts of new analogies.
If what you want to paint is the emotive mood in all its strength... then you must not sit and stare at everything and depict it exactly as one sees it.
I had no proof that I had the stuff to be an artist, though I hungered to be one.
In the midst of observing the world and coming to consciousness, I was becoming a writer, and what I wanted to put on the page were the stories of people who looked like me.
Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game.
I'd love to be an artist always, but if no one wants me, I'd love to write songs for other people, be a manager, nurture new talent.
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