Friday, December 26, 2008

The Writer, the Artist...

Here's one of those things I would have loved to have been able to say with such eloquence and simplicity. It's something Harold Pinter said--perhaps in an interview--and it's quoted at the end of the long obituary for Pinter in today's New York Times. He was talking about writing, and this is what he said:

I find at the end of the journey, which of course is never ending, that I have found things out. I don't go away and say: 'I have illuminated myself. You see before you a changed person.' It's a more surreptitious sense of discovery that happens to the writer himself.


Precisely. That's the joy and the importance of it, a reward in itself.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

“The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember” H. Pinter
Rest in peace.....

roger said...

if any of you missed pinter's nobel prize acceptance speech

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5779318336871023559

Anonymous said...

I find at the end of the journey, which of course is never ending, that I have found things out. I don't go away and say: 'I have illuminated myself. You see before you a changed person.' It's a more surreptitious sense of discovery that happens to the writer himself.

The possible explanations of this quote are interesting, especially the use of surreptitious. What happens to the writer is a stealthful sense of discovery. I wonder if that is like in painting, where you sneak up on accidents which open doors?

He also says that he has found some things out, but would never claim he was changed by enlightenment. A reward without an effect?

re: heard an interesting take on suffering recently:

When the primary universal laws are transgressed, one can be assured of suffering, the purpose of which is to teach a better way.

also: There is an excellent film of The Homecoming, cast including Alan Bates, which was made in the Seventies, if anyone's interested.

Anonymous said...

one link to the Pinter film is here:

http://www.alanbates.com/abarchive/film/aft.html

I suscribed to ATF and saw the films. Memorable greatness.

Peter Clothier said...

Thanks for the referral, Carly. I'll check it out.