Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Good Distractions

Marilynne Robinson - Paris Review

INTERVIEWER
Were you told that it would compromise your creative energies to teach creative writing?

ROBINSON
Yes, of course. But everything compromises your creative energies. Years ago I accepted a grant from the American Academy that was supposed to support me for five years without teaching. I lasted about a year and a half before I nearly went crazy. Teaching is a distraction and a burden, but it’s also an incredible stimulus. And a reprieve, in a way. When you’re trying to work on something and it’s not going anywhere, you can go to school and there’s a two-and-a-half-hour block of time in which you can accomplish something.