Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
Interpretation
Writers often cope with their struggles either through substance or by seeking validation from their audiences.
In this quote, Gore Vidal reflects on the diverse ways in which writers handle the pressures and challenges of their craft. Some may turn to alcohol as a form of escape, while others may seek affirmation and engagement from their audiences, suggesting that both are means of dealing with the emotional weight of writing.
In practice
In a discussion about the challenges of being a writer during a workshop.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
Color is a plastic means of creating intervals... color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony.
The song that nerves a nation's heart is in itself a deed.
My life, my reading, everything about me revolves around the cinema. So for me, cinema is life, and vice-versa.
music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts.
Work is what you do for others, liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself.
You don't go out and play Beethoven's 'Opus 111' without having rethought about it every time you play.
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