Coursekit is now Lore.
What’s the Story?
A discovery engine for meaningful knowledge, fueled by cross-disciplinary curiosity.
A Brain Pickings project edited by Maria Popova in partnership with Noodle.
Twitter: @explorer

Q: Is writing your novels pleasure or drudgery?

A: Pleasure and agony while composing the book in my mind; harrowing irritation when struggling with my tools and viscera — the pencil that needs resharpening, the card that has to be rewritten, the bladder that has to be drained, the word that I always misspell and always have to look up. Then the labor of reading the typescript prepared by a secretary, the correction of my major mistakes and her minor ones, transferring corrections to other copies, misplacing pages, trying to remember something that had to be crossed out or inserted. Repeating the process when proofreading. Unpacking the radiant, beautiful, plump advance copy, opening it — and discovering a stupid oversight committed by me, allowed by me to survive. After a month or so, I get used to the book’s final stage, to its having been weaned from my brain. I now regard it with a kind of amused tenderness as a man regards not his son, but the young wife of his son.

A rare and wonderful 1969 audio Q&A with Nabokov – part interview, part performance art.
104 notes
  1. the-firebrand reblogged this from explore-blog
  2. rj-anderson reblogged this from explore-blog
  3. odettecarotte reblogged this from explore-blog
  4. djinnator reblogged this from explore-blog
  5. katsprad reblogged this from explore-blog
  6. change-up121231 reblogged this from explore-blog
  7. divine-dreamers-delight reblogged this from explore-blog
  8. puget reblogged this from explore-blog
  9. cowpybara reblogged this from explore-blog
  10. the-nightingale-and-the-rose reblogged this from awesomethingsaregoodforyou
  11. somafree reblogged this from explore-blog
  12. onehundreddollars reblogged this from explore-blog