Paul Auster to Young Writers: Lose the Ego | Big Think

Paul Auster to Young Writers: Lose the Ego
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The novelist believes that it’s “the burning need to do it,” not to be praised, that spurs great writing.
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Paul Benjamin:

Paul Benjamin Auster is an author and poet who has gained acclaim over a diverse 30-year career, in which he has published many volumes of poetry and essays as well as 20 novels, now widely translated. His work also extends to the translation of the work of foreign writers, including French writers Stéphane Mallarmé and Joseph Joubert. He is arguably best known for his three experimental detective stories, collectively referred to as The New York Trilogy ("City of Glass," 1985; "Ghosts," 1986; "The Locked Room," 1986). His latest novel, "Invisible," was released by Henry Holt and Co. in October 2009. His first marriage was to the writer Lydia Davis in 1974; his second to the novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt in 1981. He has two children, Daniel and Sophie, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: How can someone read like a good writer?

Paul Auster: Well, again, we get into very murky territory here because it's all a matter of taste. I mean, I have the writers that I care about most, the writers that I think are the greatest of the past and of the present. But my list would be very different, perhaps, from yours. But I guess the important thing for young writers is to read, read the good ones. And I suppose by that, I mean, the ones who've withstood the test of time. You know, the great ones. Hawthorne, Melville, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka, Dickens, that's where you're going to get the most, I think. And when you see how, you know, brilliantly they do things, Flaubert, you know, all the names that we know. But they're there for a reason, because they really are the best writers. And I think you have to learn from the great ones.

Question: What's the most common trap beginning writers fall into?

Paul Auster: Common trap, I suppose a kind of an egotism, self-importance, inability to look out of themselves, and I think it's important to look very closely at the world, everything happening around you, and sometimes for young people it's difficult to do that.

And the other thing is to, to get too attached to some of the things that you think are clever that you're doing. I think cleverness has its spots, its place in the world, perhaps, but the burning need to do it is what makes for good work. The wish to do it doesn't really help you. It's when it's absolutely necessary.

So when I talk to young writers, I mostly tell them, don't do it. Don't be a writer, it's a terrible way to live your life, there's nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don't expect anything from anybody. The world doesn't owe you anything and no one is asking you to do it. And I suppose it's this feeling of accomplishment that young people feel sometimes is that, "Well, of course my book should be published! Of course I should be able to earn a living out of this." Well, it just doesn't work that way.

Recorded on November 5, 2009
Interviewed by Austin Allen

[TheMissing]

"the world doesn't owe you anything, and nobody is asking you to do it" probably some of the best advice I have heard for young people going into any profession from writer to Navy SEAL.

[robbieclark]

"Poverty and obscurity and solitude"

Here I COME

[Guigley]

"The world does not owe you anything" is very sage advice. I agree with him when he says that writing has to be a need.

[maliceburgoyne]

Biggest problem for beginning writers is: Trying to be profound.

[SubconsciousGatherer]

The best thing about being a writer is being a writer. Rewards are gravy.

[CoaCoadrian]

- Don't expect anything from anybody, because the world doesn't owe you anything and no one is asking you to do it. 

Deal with it.

[TheAtomicSurvivor]

To me, what makes a great writer is someone who is constantly aspiring to grow and take risk. It is someone who is never satisified with what they have done in the past. And believe they can do better. There are famous writers that are like that and I respect them for that. However, though, there are other famous writers who are not and write the same story and follow the same formulaic rules of their other books. A great writer is one always willing to learn and better themselves.

[nicholasschroeder]

As a creative major I found a sweet spot when I'd start a story or poem with some vague motive or idea--once a single word--and I'd see where it would go. I really wouldn't know. But I'd come up with inspirations as I'd go along. It was the only way I could do it because the fun was in the discovery: I'd get eager to find out how the story would end. It was like I was reading a story I was writing. Hard work, but sometimes magic. But to do it for a living--boy--you really have to have a compulsion.

[carolinelewriter]

I love writing, creating characters, words and worlds-- therefore I write.
I know there's minimal chance of getting published but I still write.
Not all young writers are ego driven.

[aol]

A suggestion to young writers, including those getting into writing whatever their age, is to rewire their brain by reading folk tales and mythology - ancient Greek myths, Scandinavian folklore and sagas as well as Native American stories. Every culture has its mythological stories ; generally archetypal and often primal. There is a brilliant book, published in the late 70s or 80s by someone Bethel regarding that psychology of those stories we love and know so well. It is well worth a read; probably after you have rewired your brain !

[aswichublaichusi]

Being marvelled at your own cleverness is a difficult drug to give up. Still working on it. Shit, I did it again!

[raymellon]

i have poverty, obscurity and solitude without writing though

[iraqidinar]

Poverty, obscurity, and solitude? Sign. Me. The fuck. UP.

[morganeoghmanann]

Writing should be, first and foremost, something a writer does because he/she loves it BUT to say a writer (or any creative artist for that matter) does not deserve to be paid "because no one asked them to do it", is seriously flawed logic. No one would walk into a store to buy a product and expect not to have to pay a fair price for it. No one would expect to go to a sports event and not have to pay to get in because no one in the audience asked the athletes to become athletes. A book is a product like any other product, whether the public "asked" for that product or not. If you are purchasing it, whoever produced it has a right to ask for fair compensation.
For some strange reason people don't seem to think artists have a right to make a living off of something they pour thousands of hours into. How would most people making such comments here feel if their boss told them they would no longer be compensated for showing up to work anymore because, after all, the boss never asked them to walk in looking for a job?

[konstantindellas]

May you rest in peace. How brilliant you were, and always will be.

[randomgirl]

So motivational. So inspiring. How awesome it is for you to contribute to hopelessness and sadness. Awesome, really, moving.

[sunnybubbleday]

I'm going to write a novel, you watch me. I know people who enjoy a good book, and I bloody well will make one myself.

[rabid]

Hired as editor of a large outdoor (fish/hunt) periodical, I found one of my staff writers produced what I felt was terrible copy. His grammar sucked, he refused to spellcheck his contributions, and he didn't arrange his comments in a sensible manner. "Worst outdoor writer ever" I thought. A trip afield made me reconsider what makes good writing though, as I talked to reader after reader singing the man's praises. Good writing is that which the target audience enjoys reading. Simple as that.

[neil]

It's a terrible irony that all the great unknown writers out there in the world today are largely ignored whilst writers like Tom Clancy, Wilbur Smith, Dan Brown, and worst of all, E.L. James sell in their hundreds of thousands and thereby become wealthy.

Sensationalism sells without a doubt, but worse still, it shows that the average literacy in the world is not as good as it should be - if popular culture is the measuring stick in which to think of these things.

[JeffersonDinedAlone]

If what you are doing is boring, then you are doing the wrong thing.