Harry Mathews
Harry Mathews
Harry Mathewsis an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. He is also a translator from the French...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth14 February 1930
CountryUnited States of America
american-author disliked half harvard leave princeton spent year
I went to Harvard because I disliked Princeton so much - I spent a year and a half there. I didn't leave Harvard early; I actually finished.
absolute american-author became learned life realized soon
But I soon learned that this was an absolute dead-end street: I would always be an American. And once I realized this, life became a joy.
american-author attraction happened initial student visit
I have to say my initial attraction to France, which happened on my first visit when I was a student at eighteen, was inexplicable.
opportunity interesting may
It has always been something I could do, and it may seem odd that in my case I seem to create an interesting narrative and frustrate the readers opportunities to follow it at every step.
years navy sophomore
And then, when I left Princeton in the middle of my sophomore year, I went into the navy.
summer spring years
After the navy, I transferred to Harvard and finished there. I was there the spring term of 1951 and I stayed through the summer term and a whole other year, so I was able to do two years in a little less than a year and a half.
children home boys
It's true, I had an extremely delicious life, but that was my life at home, and perhaps because I was only a child, or for whatever reasons, I found the company of others, especially other boys, quite terrifying and upsetting.
giving-up giving inventing
You make something. You give up expressing and start inventing.
writing desire way
Write about the things that attract you. Choose your subjects the way you used to choose your toys: out of desire.
writing anxiety way
What I said about John was that he liberated me from my anxieties about writing in a correct, acceptable way.
easter sides upper-east-side
I'd been brought up on the Upper East Side in a WASP society, which was death on crutches.
play ideas paris
My idea was to go to Vienna to study conducting and perhaps play in an orchestra first, so I thought before I got to Vienna I could do with a little training in Paris.
running thinking vocabulary
Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints --the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk --we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents.
college parent upset
And I finished college because I thought how much it would upset my parents if I didnt.