Ask the Author: Max Reif
Answered Questions (6)
Max Reif
Toward an Interior Sun, the book just published, is a "story cycle" about some of the things I've lived through, some of the things I've lived through that, as I say in the Introduction, the high school kid I once was wouldn't believe could happen! I wanted to document this in narrative prose, so that it comes alive for readers. I hope that this effort has succeeded.
Max Reif
The primary inspiration in my life WAS my life, and how it showed me that even if we are so far down that recovery seems impossible, it is not. I was helped by great, benign Forces that I had not even known existed, and I wanted to articulately share the miracle of infinite possibility. But you have to "show, not tell" for it to really communicate...so it's a tall order! I am also deeply inspired--reminded of the glory of Existence--whenever I go outside and look up at the trees and sky.
Max Reif
I have a lot of projects waiting...putting together a couple of books from poems of the recent past...a book of anecdotes about working and playing with small children, which I've done for fifteen years in my day job...many children's stories and "visionary parables" that I'd like to get into print...and the occasional poem and essay that just comes up. Next thing to appear in print will likely be a review of the great "Downton Abbey," which we just finished watching, combined with a section about how this series illustrates the way my spiritual guide, Meher Baba, said film and drama can express spiritual values and therefore serve humanity, in a message he gave to Hollywood when he was there in 1932
Max Reif
Various takes on a quote from, I think Schopenhauer: "Remove the watchers from the gates of intelligence!" If you learn to write uncensored from your true feelings...whatever your mind thinks about it...you'll open up a great reservoir of material! I keep in mind a related paragraph from Allen Ginsberg, about something Kerouac taught him: you don't have to SHOW people everything you write! There's always going to be stuff you might not want to share, but you'll never get to all the stuff you DO want to share unless you write down EVERYTHING!
Max Reif
ha! prayer! I also do journal writing, kind of in the manner Julia Cameron recommends in The Artist's Way. Everything passes. I've written hundreds of pages of material that has been published, WITH "writer's block." :-)
Max Reif
I like the answer of Anne Lamott: Writing helps you process experience, and grow. Publishing, in itself, does not.
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