Chantal’s Reviews > Writing as a Way of Life: A Book About Art, Craft, and Devotion > Status Update

“When artists worry about where they stand, they take time and psychic energy away from the only thing that matters—the making of art.”

Morton talking w/ Sharon Olds: “…I said…, that I wanted to encourage students to respect the language. She looked startled, and she said, ‘Respect the language? I don’t want to respect the language. I want to…fuck the language!’
“…it was clear that.. she was talking about a kind of ecstatic communion.
“…I should have said, “Can’t you do both?”

“And the thought of putting my characters through predetermined paces—I’ll fortune to good fortune, or vice versa—held little appeal. I wanted to follow my characters around and see where life took them. I wanted my characters to discover their own fates.” —Me too!