Speaking of Stephen Elliott—as I was yesterday, getting ramped up for his DC reading on November 20—Maud Newton’s blog featured an interesting interview with Elliott. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here are a few tidbits I found especially interesting:
“But when I started writing The Adderall Diaries I had no idea the book would have anything to do with my relationship with my father. I think you do come to conclusions if you’re honestly exploring your motivations, but they’re not the ones you think….So yes, that’s the wonderful thing about writing (because it isn’t the money), that you achieve moments of insight and you realize things that are important, that you might not have known were important to you and who you are.”
AND
“People say you can write about them. They encourage you to be honest, and what they mean is you can write about their good side and their bad side, but not about a side they didn’t know they had. People don’t see us as we see ourselves. I think Janet Malcolm put it best, that being written about is like failing a test you didn’t know you were taking.”
Read the rest here…and come to the reading on November 20!