Joanna Scott
Joanna Scott
Joanna Scottis an American author and Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at the University of Rochester...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
asked ourselves
In the ongoing celebration that is literature, we are asked to imagine ourselves as other selves, for better or worse.
against arranging belongs bump curse fiction furniture guess stumble toe trying wrong
I'm really such a bumbler! Writing fiction is like arranging furniture in a dark room. I can't see what I'm doing. I grope for the right words. I bump against the wrong words and stumble and stub my toe and curse and keep trying to guess what belongs in the space.
literary spent
In the early 1980s, I spent a year working as an assistant at the Elaine Markson Literary Agency.
best liars might rather writers
The best liars lie with their eyes rather than with their words. This might put writers at a disadvantage.
children lots midst open staying
As children know, there's lots of fun in nonsense. We never stop benefiting from staying flexible, open and responsive, even in the midst of confusion.
arbitrary matter point
There's a point I set for myself, and it's an arbitrary point, when I think no matter happens, I'm going to finish that book. And that's when I get to page 100. I have to see it out.
behind connect continue conversation hiding however looking maybe novelist stories ways
The novelist in me is probably hiding behind all the stories I write, looking for ways to connect them and continue the conversation with readers. Maybe I'm writing one long narrative, and each book, however different from the last, is just a chapter.
art both drives essential fiction heart novelist offers ourselves telling time true truth
Telling ourselves that fiction is in a sense true and at the same time not true is essential to the art of fiction. It's been at the heart of fiction from the start. Fiction offers both truth, and we know it's a flat-out lie. Sometimes it drives a novelist mad. Sometimes it energizes us.
admired antics democratic document easier intimate life private reviewers satirical square thanks verbal
Reviewers try to square the antics of a writer's life with the antics in the fiction. Even satirical verbal play is too often read and admired as autobiographical expression. And thanks to the democratic exposures of the web, it's easier than ever to document private experiences and divulge the most intimate secrets.
confusing donald essays minded subject
I don't think Donald Barthelme would have minded being called a confusing writer. Confusion was a favorite subject for him in his essays and reviews, and it's enacted in his fiction in a mishmash of dizzying incongruities.