I never take any notes or draw charts or make elaborate diagrams, but I hold an image of the shape of a book in my head and work from that mental hologram. Jonathan Lethem More Quotes by Jonathan Lethem More Quotes From Jonathan Lethem Writing is physical for me. I always have the sense that the words are coming out of my body, not just my mind. Jonathan Lethem body mind writing I met someone who lives in an elevator. Jonathan Lethem elevators mets Develop your pawns or Hulk will smash. Jonathan Lethem pawns Waves, sky, trees, Essrog - I was off the page now, away from the grammar of skyscrapers and pavement. Jonathan Lethem pages sky tree When I write lyrics, I really do go into an automatic folk appropriation mode... I see the vernacular register of 20th century song as being a bunch of forms to adapt and reconfigure. Jonathan Lethem century writing song Context is everything. Dress me up and see. I'm a carnival barker, an auctioneer, a downtown performance artist, a speaker in tongues, a senator drunk on filibuster. I've got Tourette's. My mouth won't quit, though mostly I whisper or subvocalize like I'm reading aloud, my Adam's apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, the noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks of empty breath and tone. Jonathan Lethem artist reading heart I don't paint anymore. I haven't since I abandoned it at 19, in order to begin writing seriously. Jonathan Lethem paint writing order The arts and a belief in the values of the civil rights movement, in the overwhelming virtue of diversity, these were our religion. My parents worshipped those ideals. Jonathan Lethem diversity rights art As much as I revere great writing, and am still humbled by it, literary activities are no longer esoteric to me. When I read a great novel - something that I could never have written myself - I'm still looking at it a little bit like a technician. Jonathan Lethem esoteric writing littles The key to mostly anything is pretending your first time isn't. Jonathan Lethem pretending keys firsts The kernel, the soul - let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances - is plagiarism. Jonathan Lethem utterance substance soul Nature, or at least birds and women, abhorred the invisible man. Jonathan Lethem invisible bird men It wasn't for children, seventh grade. You could read the stress of even entering the building in the postures of the teachers, the security guards. Nobody could relax in such a racial and hormonal disaster area. Jonathan Lethem stress teacher children I'm learning to hate the sound of my own voice. Jonathan Lethem voice hate sound Consensual reality is both fragile and elastic, and it heals like the skin of a bubble. Jonathan Lethem heal skins reality It's now expected of me that I will defy expectation, so I really generally seem to be free to write what I want. Jonathan Lethem expectations want writing How often had that hydrant even been opened? Did you jet water through a car window, what, twice at best? Summer burned just a few afternoons long, in the end. As for flying, Dose never even glanced at the sky. Flying was a summer within a summer, a whim. So why think of it at all? Jonathan Lethem summer sky thinking I listen to music all the time. I write while listening to music. And I tell myself that the music nourishes the art forms that I do master and domesticate, and have authority over. Jonathan Lethem listening writing art Listen to me. I’m shy. I’m not stupid. I can’t meet people’s eyes. I don’t know if you understand what that’s like. There’s a whole world going on around me, I’m aware of that. It’s not because I don’t want to look at you, Lucinda. It’s that I don’t want to be seen. Jonathan Lethem eye stupid people Apologies aren't something you want to get in the habit of practicing in the mirror Jonathan Lethem apology mirrors want
