When I'm dying, I want to think I did what I felt was best for the words I was writing. This may mean, at any time, that I won't be publishable anymore.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of staying true to one's artistic vision, even at the cost of popularity or commercial success.
William T. Vollmann's quote reflects a deep commitment to the integrity of one's creative work. He expresses a desire to remain faithful to his own beliefs and instincts while writing, suggesting that the value of art lies not in its marketability but in its authenticity. This perspective champions the idea that an artist should prioritize their personal truth over societal expectations or commercial pressures, even if it leads to being unpublishable at times.
In practice
In a writing workshop discussing the importance of authenticity in storytelling.
There have been times when I'm writing about things that are personally embarrassing. Like any human being, sometimes I can't help but wonder - 'What are the people I know going to think about this?' So I have to remind myself that all is permissible. Art has to be a free space. Language has to be a free space.
Everybody is an expert on one thing - that's what I learned in my high school journalism class - and that's, of course, his own life. And everybody deserves to live and have his story told. And if it doesn't seem like an interesting story, then that's the failure of the listener, or the journalist who retells it badly.
No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.
Out in the world not much happened. But here in the special night, a land bricked with paper and leather anything might happen, always did.
I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.
Aesthetics has become too important to be left to the aesthetes. To succeed, hard-nosed engineers, real estate developers, and MBAs must take aesthetic communication, and aesthetic pleasure, seriously. We, their customers, demand it.
Films are neither true nor false. That includes my films, as well as others. They may make claims that are true or false, but films are too complex. They have too many ingredients.
You know how writers are... they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.
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