How to Catch a Book

“I knew from the beginning it was going to be a book. You have that feeling. It’s like having a fish on the line. You know when it’s an old boot and when it’s a fish. But I didn’t know what the book was.” 

—Wallace Stegner (1909-1993), Western novelist, talking about his 1987 book Crossing to Safety, interviewed by James R. Hepworth, “The Art of Fiction, No. 118,” The Paris Review, 1990.

• Editorial Comment: What kind of bait are you using?




PeezPix

Not a Boot

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard