Kurt Vonnegut on writing
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INTERVIEWER:
Could you put the theory into a few words?
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VONNEGUT:
It was stated by Paul Engle—the founder of the Writers’ Workshop at Iowa. He told me that, if the workshop ever got a building of its own, these words should be inscribed over the entrance: Don’t take it all so seriously.
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INTERVIEWER:
And how would that be helpful?
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VONNEGUT:
It would remind the students that they were learning to play practical jokes.
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INTERVIEWER:
Practical jokes?
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VONNEGUT:
If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again.
