I started with small-press publishers, who were willing to publish all sorts of forms. I didn't move to the larger presses until they knew what they were getting in for. Lydia Davis More Quotes by Lydia Davis More Quotes From Lydia Davis Samuel Johnson Is Indignant:that Scotland has so few trees. Lydia Davis indignant scotland tree If I was writing about an academic or a more difficult person, I would use the Latinate vocabulary more, but I do think Anglo-saxon is the language of emotion. Lydia Davis vocabulary writing thinking No one is calling me. I can’t check the answering machine because I have been here all this time. If I go out, someone may call while I’m out. Then I can check the answering machine when I come back in. Lydia Davis machines calling may That's the interesting thing about writing. You can start late, you can be ignorant of things, and yet, if you work hard and pay attention you can do a good job of it. Lydia Davis hard-work writing jobs I started writing the one-sentence stories when I was translating 'Swann's Way.' There were two reasons. I had almost no time to do my own writing, but didn't want to stop. And it was a reaction to Proust's very long sentences. Lydia Davis writing two long I worked more intensively hour after hour when I was starting out [writing]. More laboriously. I'd say quantity is important as well as quality, and if you're not producing enough, make a schedule and stick to it. Lydia Davis after-hours important writing I think a lot of what goes into writing can be taught - not mixing metaphors, etc. Lydia Davis mixing writing thinking I am simply not interested, at this point, in creating narrative scenes between characters. Lydia Davis creating narrative character When I'm trying a new form- trying to do something I'm not used to doing, which was true of the novel. Lydia Davis form used trying I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings, and I don’t like to knock other writers as a matter of principle. Lydia Davis hurt feelings people the translator, a lonely sort of acrobat, becomes confused in a labyrinth of paradox, or climbs a pyramid of dependent clauses and has to invent a way down from it in his own language. Lydia Davis confused lonely pyramids In some sense the text and the translator are locked in struggle - 'I attacked that sentence, it resisted me, I attacked another, it eluded me' - a struggle in which, curiously, when the translator wins, the text wins too. Lydia Davis sentences struggle winning We feel an affinity with a certain thinker because we agree with him; or because he shows us what we were already thinking; or because he shows us in a more articulate form what we were already thinking; or because he shows us what we were on the point of thinking; or what we would sooner or later have thought; or what we would have thought much later if we hadn’t read it now; or what we would have been likely to think but never would have thought if we hadn’t read it now; or what we would have liked to think but never would have thought if we hadn’t read it now. Lydia Davis affinity form thinking Often, the idea that there can be a wide range of translations of one text doesn't occur to people - or that a translation could be bad, very bad, and unfaithful to the original. Lydia Davis unfaithful people ideas But it is curious how you can see that an idea is absolutely true and correct and yet not believe it deeply enough to act on it. Lydia Davis enough believe ideas We all have an ongoing narrative inside our heads, the narrative that is spoken aloud if a friend asks a question. That narrative feels deeply natural to me. We also hang on to scraps of dialogue. Our memories don’t usually serve us up whole scenes complete with dialogue. So I suppose I’m saying that I like to work from what a character is likely to remember, from a more interior place. Lydia Davis ongoing character memories I attempt all day, at work, not to think about what lies ahead, but this costs me so much effort that there is nothing left for my work. I handle telephone calls so badly that after a while the switchboard operator refuses to connect me. So I had better say to myself, Go ahead and polish the silverware beautifully, then lay it out ready on the sideboard and be done with it. Because I polish it in my mind all day long—this is what torments me (and doesn't clean the silver). Lydia Davis long lying thinking I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it. Lydia Davis notebook stories writing I never dream in French, but certain French words seem better or more fun than English words - like 'pois chiches' for chick peas! Lydia Davis english-words dream fun I am basically the sort of person who has stage-fright teaching. I kind of creep into a classroom. I'm not an anecdote-teller, either, although I often wish I were. Lydia Davis anecdotes teaching wish
