“It’s about a lazy prince. Nobody thinks he’s got a brain. All he does is drink and joke around and hang out with lowlifes in the bar. Even his father thinks he’s a zero. Then all of a sudden, he has to go to war. Nobody thinks he can hack…
Tag: The Art of Fiction
INTERVIEWER You have said elsewhere that the authors you have learned most from were Jane Austen and Proust. What did you learn from Jane Austen technically? FORSTER I learned the possibilities of domestic humor. I was more ambitious than she was, of course; I tried to hitch it on to…
INTERVIEWER: E. M. Forster speaks of his major characters sometimes taking over and dictating the course of his novels. Has this ever been a problem for you, or are you in complete command? NABOKOV: My knowledge of Mr. Forster’s works is limited to one novel, which I dislike; and anyway,…
INTERVIEWER: I was reading the confessions of a novelist on writing novels: “If you want to be true to reality, start lying about it.” What do you think? JOHN CHEEVER: Rubbish. For one thing the words “truth” and “reality” have no meaning at all unless they are fixed in a…