Francine Prose
Francine Prose
Francine Proseis an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a Visiting Professor of Literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 April 1947
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
writing thinking twelve
If things are going well I can easily spend twelve hours a day writing, but not writing writing, just thinking and revising and taking a comma out and putting it back in.
writing garden rose
If we want to write, it makes sense to read—and to read like a writer. If we wanted to grow roses, we would want to visit rose gardens and try to see them the way that a rose gardener would.
writing facts fiction
Fact-checking is so boring compared to writing fiction.
writing skills choices
Every page was once a blank page, just as every word that appears on it now was not always there, but instead reflects the final result of countless large and small deliberations. All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another. And what grabs and keeps our interest has everything to do with those choices.
writing skills creative
All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another.
book reading writing
Like most-maybe all- writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.
supposed
I think of myself as someone with a kind of Tourette's. I cannot help saying the thing you're not supposed to say.
time
Of course, I've always read. I started when I was four years old and just didn't stop. I read all the time.
aesthetic approach art fresh start suggest work
A work of art can start you thinking about some aesthetic or philosophical problem; it can suggest some new method, some fresh approach to fiction.
time
I'm in a rage all of the time.
emerge polished satisfying sentence snap ultimately
For any writer, the ability to look at a sentence and see what's superfluous, what can be altered, revised, expanded, and, especially, cut, is essential. It's satisfying to see that sentence shrink, snap into place, and ultimately emerge in a more polished form: clear, economical, sharp.
comedy conference learned lucid plot prose samuel sentences studied work writers
Long before the idea of a writer's conference was a glimmer in anyone's eye, writers learned by reading the work of their predecessors. They studied meter with Ovid, plot construction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes; they honed their prose style by absorbing the lucid sentences of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson.
long seven-days week
I work really long days and I work seven day weeks.
sports kids loss
I remember, when I was a little kid, I was good at sports, and I could jump off the high board. And then puberty hit, and suddenly I was looking to boys for direction. I remember that as a great loss.