Cynthia Ozick on Next American Great Novel or Novelist

"..can we see any inkling of a presumptive heir 

to Bellow or Updike orNabokov, or to so many others of 

the previous generation (the list would be long and 

impressive) who have left a formative mark on American 

experience?

From Ta-Nehisi Coates interview

 I had a variety of experiences, but it’s not mystical. It’s not in the genes or in the bones.

Excerpt from a review of Zero K /Don DeLillo

"Like the philosophy of the older Heidegger, DeLillo’s is a heightening of the acts of naming and making art and poetry. If anything can save us, it’s art. And yet art’s being escapes its naming. And in what may quite possibly be his final novelistic effort, Don DeLillo has worked out a contentment with the fact that life’s highest cause for reverence is finally, is merely, just such a static escape."

Peter Zilahy on people working in publishing

"In fact, as far as I can tell, there are not many people working in the publishing business that can actually read."

Peter Zilahy

What it means to be a writer

"If you don’t connect with other people, then it’s impossible to write realistically about contemporary issues.

Good literature comes from small places/ Sjón

".. novels are my bedrock. And Iceland is their bedrock. I think all good literature comes from small places, small parts of society, because that’s where the roles become visible, the social mechanism clear."

Don't writers want to be remembered for their work now?

"All I am providing is a form of entertainment. I don’t demand that readers remember me, or that they remember the content of every story, as long as they enjoy my novels and get happiness from them." 

The inevitable question now is: don't we writers want to be remembered for our work? Is it only about the present? Is it only about cash and short-lived fame? Is it the prevalent writerly attitude now?

What is a story about?

"Any story is about a host of things. It is about the author; it is about the world the author sees and deals with and lives in;

Jay Williams Quote

Good writing never soothes or comforts.
--Jay Williams

Recommended reading: Middle Eastern Writers Find Refuge in Dystopian Novel

 Middle Eastern Writers Find Refuge in Dystopian Novel