As A Writer, You Owe

Back In My 20s, When I Wrote 'a Place Of Greater Safety,' The French Revolution Novel, I Thought, 'i'll Always Have To Write Historical Novels Because I Can't Do Plots.'' But In The Six Years Of Writing That Novel, I Actually Learned To Write, To Invent Things.

He Is Careful To Deny Responsibility For September, But He Does Not, You Notice, Condemn The Killings. He Also Refrains From Killing Words, Sparing Roland And Buzot, As If They Were Beneath His Notice. August 10 Was Illegal, He Says; So Too Was The Taking Of The Bastille. What Account Can We Take Of That, In Revolution? It Is The Nature Of Revolutions To Break Laws. We Are Not Justices Of The Peace; We Are Legislators To A New World.

A Statute Is Written To Entrap Meaning, A Poem To Escape It.

Fiction Leaves Us So Much Work To Do, Allows The Individual So Much Input; You Have To See, You Have To Hear, You Have To Taste The Madeleine, And While You Are Seemingly Passive In Your Chair, You Have To Travel.

I Am Usually Protective Of My Work, Not Showing It To Anyone Until It Has Been Redrafted And Polished.