Q: What’s a strainer?
A: Manfred’s granny called people who strove to get ahead, at another’s expense, strainers.
Q: Bukowski’s epitaph was, “Don’t try.”
A: I think he meant, “Don’t strive.”
It has to come natural.
You develop yourself until, in certain particular circumstances, it flows, and then establish the circumstances for yourself.
Q: Figure out what you need and get it.
A: Yes. Eliminate everything you don’t need.
Q: What do you need?
A: Not much.
Q: Thoreau says to simplify.
A: I got where all I needed was a computer and my computer broke.
Q: All you need is a pen and paper.
A: And a computer.
Q: Christopher Hitchens makes a living talking on the television.
A: He is dealing in herds of cattle to get his shoelaces.
Q: If you say so.
A: Don’t listen to me. What do I know?
I have made a botch of things.
Q: An old bitch, gone in the teeth. A botched civilization.
A: Ezra Pound.
Ezra Pound in St. Elizabeth’s.
Writing.
Q: Writing poems.
A: He was a poet.
Poets write poems.
Q: That may be the problem.
A: It’s not a problem.
It’s a donnée.
It’s the plot and characters, the setting and the theme.
The theme and variations.