God’s Work

 

“When I was very little, say five or six, I became aware of the fact that people wrote books. Before that, I thought that God wrote books. I thought a book was a manifestation of nature, like a tree. When my mother explained it, I kept after her: What are you saying? What do you mean? I couldn’t believe it. It was astonishing. It was like—here’s the man who makes all the trees. Then I wanted to be a writer, because, I suppose, it seemed the closest thing to being God.

 

“I never wanted to be anything else. Well, if there had been a job of being a reader, I would have taken that, because I love to read and I don’t love to write. That would be blissful.”  

 

—Fran Lebowitz, writer, “A Humorist at Work,” The Paris Review, 1993.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Little girl Fran, in fairness, then, God has also written quite a number of stinkers.

 

PeezPIX

 

Hot off the presses! What Scares Us? Check out the October issue of Senior News, Things That Go Bump in the Night. On newsstands everywhere. (Or should be.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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