The People Of This Country Are Too

Every Generation Rewrites The Past. In Easy Times History Is More Or Less Of An Ornamental Art, But In Times Of Danger We Are Driven To The Written Record By A Pressing Need To Find Answers To The Riddles Of Today.... In Times Of Change And Danger When There Is A Quicksand Of Fear Under Men's Reasoning, A Sense Of Continuity With Generations Gone Before Can Stretch Like A Lifeline Across The Scary Present And Get Us Past That Idiot Delusion Of The Exceptional Now That Blocks Good Thinking.

One Of The Most Extraordinary Things About Industrial Society Of The Present Day Is Its Idiot Lack Of Memory. Tabloids And Movies Take The Place Of Mental Processes And Revolts, Crimes, Despairs Pass Off In A Dribble Of Vague Words And Rubber Stamp Phrases Without Leaving A Scratch On The Mind Of The Driven Instalment-paying, Subway-packing Mass.

There Are Too Many "creative Writing" Courses And Seminars, In Which Young Wirters Are Constantly Being Taught To Rewrite The Previous Generation. They Should Be Experimenting On Their Own. Every Writer Faces Different Problems Which He Must Solve For Himself.

I Do A Lot Of Revising. Certain Chapters Six Or Seven Times. Occasionally You Can Hit It Right The First Time. More Often, You Don't.

Isn't It Curious How Completely Ignorant We All Are Of The Most Important Part Of Our Bodily Mechanism. It Is Really Criminal. Yet There Is No Nation In The World That Doesnt Surround Sex With Fantastic Walls. Of Course Ours Are Sillier Than Any-but Not Much.