My Life in CIA is the first time that I've ever written a story in my own name. Harry Mathews More Quotes by Harry Mathews More Quotes From Harry Mathews There are many things I’ve written that I didn’t really understand until a long time later. Harry Mathews long-time written long Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints --the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk --we think we're using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we're its slavish agents. Harry Mathews vocabulary running thinking Translation is the paradigm, the exemplar of all writing.... It is translation that demonstrates most vividly the yearning for transformation that underlies every act involving speech, that supremely human gift. Harry Mathews transformation speech writing You make something. You give up expressing and start inventing. Harry Mathews inventing giving-up giving I graduated in 1952 and went to Europe, with Niki and our first child Laura, who was then a year old. Harry Mathews europe children years I left Princeton, but I graduated Harvard, in 1952. Harry Mathews princeton left harvard I think situations are more important than plot and character. Harry Mathews important character thinking I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, for a while, about which the less said the better, and then I was in the Mediterranean, about which the more said the better. Harry Mathews norfolk virginia said Music had been my first love among the arts, and I was fascinated by it, as I still am. Harry Mathews first-love art firsts I also had this mistaken dream, fantasy really - perhaps because I'm good at languages - of being able in both Italy and France to become someone else through my fluency in the language. Harry Mathews france able dream And I finished college because I thought how much it would upset my parents if I didnt. Harry Mathews upset parent college My dream, I remember, when I went to boarding school, was to have a study all my own, a little nook someplace where nobody could get at me - nobody, like the football coach. Harry Mathews dream football school My idea was to go to Vienna to study conducting and perhaps play in an orchestra first, so I thought before I got to Vienna I could do with a little training in Paris. Harry Mathews paris play ideas I'd been brought up on the Upper East Side in a WASP society, which was death on crutches. Harry Mathews upper-east-side easter sides What I said about John was that he liberated me from my anxieties about writing in a correct, acceptable way. Harry Mathews anxiety writing way Write about the things that attract you. Choose your subjects the way you used to choose your toys: out of desire. Harry Mathews desire writing way It’s true, I had an extremely delicious life, but that was my life at home, and perhaps because I was only a child, or for whatever reasons, I found the company of others, especially other boys, quite terrifying and upsetting. Harry Mathews home boys children After the navy, I transferred to Harvard and finished there. I was there the spring term of 1951 and I stayed through the summer term and a whole other year, so I was able to do two years in a little less than a year and a half. Harry Mathews summer spring years And then, when I left Princeton in the middle of my sophomore year, I went into the navy. Harry Mathews navy sophomore years It has always been something I could do, and it may seem odd that in my case I seem to create an interesting narrative and frustrate the readers opportunities to follow it at every step. Harry Mathews may opportunity interesting
