If Plutarch is the essayist I want to believe he is, he would want us all to sit in his chair. John D'Agata More Quotes by John D'Agata More Quotes From John D'Agata I'm not worried about what part of their life they needed to massage in order to achieve something that I get to experience as transcendent. Because that's the point of literature, I think: to connect. John D'Agata literatureorderthinking Sometimes what I'm looking for is the thing that will help renew people's interest in a writer that they may have written off as not their kind of writer. John D'Agata mayhelpingpeople People like to say that Plutarch's is a really "personal" voice, but in truth Plutarch tells us very little about his life. His voice is personable but never personal. It feels intimate because he's addressing the world as we experience it, at this level, a human level, rather than way up here where very few of us live. John D'Agata voicepeopleworld Plutarch's peers were writing "rhetorics," which were these dry philosophical treatises that made really broad gestures about life and death and fate. Plutarch stepped out of the stream to create an essayistic form that relied on a digressive structure and down to earth anecdotes. John D'Agata philosophicalfatewriting I wanted to create an environment in which more than just personal essays could be represented, and in which stranger approaches to making essays could be celebrated. John D'Agata environmentstrangerwanted Yucca Mountain isn't pretty. And it also isn't large. From far away, the mountain's just a squat bulge in the middle of the desert, essentially just debris from a bigger, stronger mountain that erupted millions of years ago and hurled its broken pieces into piles across the earth. John D'Agata far-awaydesertmountainbroken The primary goal of the so-called nonfiction text is to relay the facts of an event - the facts about a person, the facts of history - which is not why I turned to this genre. John D'Agata whypersonhistoryfacts It's almost impossible that an argument would naturally form the kind of arch that it does in 'Lifespan'. So, the conversation is constructed. John D'Agata argumentkindimpossibleconversation In its fifty-first year of publication, 'The Paris Review' continues to search for new ways to bring together writers and readers. John D'Agata searchnewparistogether 'The Paris Review's mandate has been the same for fifty years. First and foremost, this magazine is for writers; the editors' task is to support and celebrate them, especially at the beginning of their careers, but also as they move forward, venturing stories that are creative, risky, new. John D'Agata newbeginningcelebratesupport I'm an essayist. And this is a genre that has existed for a few thousand years. Ever heard of Cicero? So these rules that I'm working under are not mine but rather were established by writers who recognized the difference between the hard research of journalism and the kind of inquiry of mind that characterizes the essay. John D'Agata rulesjournalismresearchmind I'm kind of fascinated by this idea that we can surround ourselves with information: we can just pile up data after data after data and arm ourselves with facts and yet still not be able to answer the questions that we have. John D'Agata questionsdatainformationfacts By embracing a label such as 'non-fiction,' the creative writing community has signaled to the world that what goes on in this genre is at best utilitarian and at worst an utter mystery. We have segregated the genre from art. John D'Agata bestcommunityworldart Can we call the essay its own genre if it's so promiscuously versatile? Can we call any genre a 'genre' if, when we read it from different angles and under different shades of light, the differences between it and something else start becoming indistinguishable? John D'Agata ownstartdifferenceslight
