László Krasznahorkai, who won the Nobel prize today, was a night watchman for a herd of cows while writing his first novel. I liked Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance; reading them it was pretty obvious that he would win a Nobel, not more than 10-20 people alive today write at that level.
Henrik Karlssonsubstack.comHenrik Karlsson (@henrikkarlsson)
Me, a fool, upon starting this: ‘How good can a novel about an elderly butler be?’ https://t.co/qwtCTMzno5
he was who I wanted to be when I grew up. He’s one of the great nonfiction writers of our time, a genius of reportage and the profile, someone who could take any curious whim and turn it into a compelling book.
I hope to be “original” in my expression, just as I imagine all artists do. As I have already explained, however, it’s not something I myself can determine. However loudly I proclaim it from the rooftops, however often I am praised for it by the critics and the media, our voices are fated to vanish in the wind. All I can do is entrust the final
... See moreHaruki Murakami • Novelist as a Vocation: The master storyteller on writing and creativity
Joseph Heller wrote Catch 22 in the evenings after work - it took him eight years spending 2-3 hours each night.
source: Daily Rituals, Mason Currey
The lower shelves were where I kept the paperbacks I figured I’d never read again. The names on the spines, Herman Hesse, Raymond Radiguet, and Kyusaku Yumeno, had all faded in the sun. Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice, and my Dostoyevsky, The Gambler, Notes from Underground, and The Brothers Karamazov. Chekhov, Camus, Steinbeck. The Odyssey
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