Q: Do you believe the world owes you a living?
A: I believe the workman is worthy of his hire.
However, you have
to do it for free until you have celebrity rent.
The remuneration comes at
the end. It's back-loaded.
Q: Jerome Stern loved Florida. From Sopchoppy's worm gruntin' festival to Tom Gaskin's Cypress Knee Museum.
A: I write about those, in my books. Visit them, and write about it.
Visit them with my kids. And K Mart tents.
Swiss Family Paranoia-Critical.
I don't believe the world owes me a living. But I do believe my words are holy, and
can't be edited.
However it comes out, that's the way it came out.
Except for obvious infelicities, I don't censor myself. Don't polish.
Q: Let-fly, Whitman said.
A: I let-fly.
Q: A college professor is expected to do research, teach, advance the discipline,
and contribute to the community.
You're doing that.
As a free-lance.
Without a salary.
A: Doing it better than some college professors, I might say.
I
produced a body of work and invented a form to present it in.
I published
it myself, with the help of friends.
Any one of my books--including the ones
distributed for free on the Internet--will enlighten and comfort as much as a class
taught, a textbook penned, an endorsement written, a committee served on.
Publishing series of related books online is advancing the discipline.
The
community has spurned my contributions, to date. But they'll catch up. That's often
the fate of an innovator.
I stuck my neck out.
I stood, and in the
evil day, withstood.
Q: The prophet is not without honor.
A: Except in his own country.