{"id":4805,"date":"2017-03-08T10:49:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T18:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/?p=4805"},"modified":"2017-03-08T10:50:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T18:50:03","slug":"selections-from-a-grace-paley-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/publishing\/selections-from-a-grace-paley-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Selections from a Grace Paley Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grace<\/a>

Grace Paley. Detail from a photo accompanying her interview in the Paris Review<\/em><\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

This interview with Grace Paley by Jonathan Dee, Barbara Jones, and Larissa MacFarquhar ran in the\u00a0Paris Review<\/em><\/a> in 1992. Still of interest.<\/p>\n

The best training is to read and write, no matter what. Don\u2019t live with a lover or roommate who doesn\u2019t respect your work. Don\u2019t lie, buy time, borrow to buy time. Write what will stop your breath if you don\u2019t write.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot of [my stories] begin with a sentence\u2014they all begin with language. It sounds dopey to say that, but it\u2019s true. Very often one sentence is absolutely resonant….\u00a0I begin by writing paragraphs that don\u2019t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two things happen when you get older. You have more experience, so you either seem wiser, or you get totally foolish. There are only those two options. You choose one, probably the wrong one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s an idea that there\u2019s this great mainstream, which may be wide but is kind of shallow and slow-moving. It\u2019s the tributaries that seem to have the energy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can\u2019t write without a lot of pressure. Sometimes the pressure comes from anger, which then changes into a pressure to write. It\u2019s not so much a matter of getting distance as simply a translation. I felt a lot of pressure writing some of those stories about women. Writers are lucky because when they\u2019re angry, the anger\u2014by habit almost\u2014I wouldn\u2019t say transcends but becomes<\/em> an acute pressure to write, to tell….\u00a0The pressure doesn\u2019t have to be anger. It could be love. One could be overcome with feelings of lifetime love or justice. Why not?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This interview with Grace Paley by Jonathan Dee, Barbara Jones, and Larissa MacFarquhar ran in the\u00a0Paris Review in 1992. Still of interest. The best training is to read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4805"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4809,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4805\/revisions\/4809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}