9 Outtakes from James Baldwin's Paris Review interview - Rolf Potts
I listened to the Coup and read everything James Baldwin had written that summer. I learned you haven’t read anything if you’ve only read something once or twice. Reading things more than twice was the reader version of revision. I read The Fire Next Time over and over again. I wondered how it would read differently had the entire book, and not jus
... See moreKiese Laymon • Heavy: An American Memoir
Dorothea Brande’s Becoming A Writer;
Ray Bradbury • Zen in the Art of Writing
Zora Neale Hurston’s story reveals in its barest form the reality of the Apprenticeship Phase— no one is really going to help you or give you direction. In fact, the odds are against you. If you desire an apprenticeship, if you want to learn and set yourself up for mastery, you have to do it yourself, and with great energy. When you enter this phas
... See moreI have learned so many things from music about writing. I think there are three important elements: rhythm, harmony, and free improvisation. I learned these things from music, not from literature. And when I started to write, I tried to write as though I were playing music.