Cormac McCarthy on his Writing Process

Cormac McCarthy on his Writing Process.
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[@dead_sync3680]

"I used to write when I was a child, and then when I was a teenager I didn't do much of anything" As a teenager this is somewhat relieving to hear

[@turtleanton6539]

This

[@jcc6913]

@@turtleanton6539 is perfect

[@lesbiansaregoodandch]

Don't worry too much about your 20's either homie. Gain life experience and stories. Get your heart broken and have fun.

[@robertrozier2940]

Don’t worry. I’m 49 and im just now starting to do real things in life. ❤

[@greengrassofhome]

Cormac Mccarthy has a good radio voice.

[@suttree3233]

He used to do radio in Alaska back in the 50s

[@macflow14]

@@suttree3233 could you extend that?

[@SyeedAli]

"You just have to trust in.. wherever it comes from." This, here, is the difference between writing as a hack (fast, employable) and writing as an artist.

[@ddamianforeman8803]

I don't think that writing "fast" is a quality of being a hack, just a quality that a successful hack usually has. Plenty of good writers (by "good," take that subjectively, please) can pump out their work quickly. Otherwise, I agree. It's a beautiful statement with heavy impact.

[@kavallerie1436]

@@ddamianforeman8803 well the inspire comes everyday for some writers in that case

[@mjakotka]

she is a “where do you get your ideas from?” kind of interviewer.

[@MrLavajet]

It's Oprah 😂

[@Richardwestwood-dp5wr]

​@MrLavajet and don't forget Dr Phil

[@Smudge4199]

did Norm Macdonald write this 😂😂

[@burningdaylights]

If only Adam Eget were there to interview him. A real meeting of the mind.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

He had a surprisingly gentle voice for a man who writes such brutal violence. RIP King. You were one of a lost kind. We won't see your like again.

[@mammontustado9680]

Wat? Stephen King's still alive 😂

[@crumbb_m]

I really resonated with the part about the signpost. That perfect image in your mind and the crushing blow of reality that comes with knowing that image will never be reached but simply bastardized. But, if that is the case, that would mean this book and every book, movie, painting or any other work of art that people love is some gold plated version of a 24 karat image.

[@konsyjes]

yes but maybe the good things come from knowing that image and that's in part at least what makes them so

[@motioneccentrica]

Well the better you get, the more you practice, the closer you get to that perfect signpost.

[@enigma9306]

He says something very important and allot of new authors don't get this. About whether he plots things out. He does have an image, but he does not plot. so yes, there is a difference between not plotting and not knowing what you're writing or what your book is about or not having any design to the structure of the book.

[@charlessomerset9754]

McCarthy's novels are so carefully and finely wrought that the intelligent reader will be transported wholly into the milieu, and placed whole body into each crafted moment. While many writers settle for a cleverness of language, I think he is genuinely trying to translate the ineffable qualities of the human condition. I avoided him for a long time, not wanting to fill my days with his bleak landscapes and overarching sense of futility, but his sincerity of style won me over, and his attempt to mine the truth. I don't enjoy his novels, but I find them necessary.

[@CriticalDispatches]

Eugh.

[@yommish]

Wow, the milieu you say?

[@charlessomerset9754]

@@yommish yeah The difference between lightning, and the lightning bug. So says Twain when it comes to using the right word rather than its second cousin. But I forget sometimes that we live in a casual text age where anything even remotely out of popular usage is scorned. I'll try to dumb it down next time. Be happy I didnt start talking about McCarthy"s weltanschauung.

[@atbta]

🤢🤮

[@charlespeterson3798]

Thanks for your efforts, regret that it took me so long to find the site, that and the slim pickens. I look forward to further content. Again thanks.

[@tommyo.3535]

The closest we'll get to a Paris Review interview, sadly...

[@fenixfunk5]

That would be excellent. If the Passenger ever comes out while he's alive we might get one. I think it'll be be posthumous if it does come out though. I could see him holding off on it to avoid any kind of media pestering in his old age.

[@sidharthwarrier9001]

Dude it's so weird but I remember you in a Sufjan Stevens song comments

[@AC-gw4qu]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqO4qmSMo5d-mqs

[@garrisondinsmore5808]

cormac mccarthy pantser confirmed

[@StudioErsatz]

"are you passionate about writing?" ...

[@edge845]

Does Oprah think herself a serious interviewer? I am amazed such a shallow woman would attempt undertake McCarthy .

[@andrewreeves9158]

She’s an idiot

[@billyalarie929]

i cannot fucking stand her, dude, but i feel like i have to be one of only a few within a secret society, and we're all draped heavily in the shadow of a dark corner of a hall in the back of some tall, burnt out abandoned building that used to be some obscure testing facility, just to be able to feel safe in saying as much.

[@uui219]

@@edge845 *What do you know about her? Tell me what you know about her that proves she's this shallow person.*

[@edge845]

@@uui219 what do I need to know? She is trying to stuff McCarthy into a a box of her convenience that indicates to me, without question, that she doesn't understand his writing. Now, that alone doesn't make her shallow, but what makes her shallow is the idea that she believes herself capable of things she simply isn't - Her experience is too shallow to grasp his meaning- okay?

[@tylerbrown2923]

Talent is the most overrated virtue-to people without talent.

[@apollinaire2207]

Any writer waiting for "inspiration" is doomed. It's a job. You want to get something done, then wake up early and sit your ass down.

[@nagilum]

That doesn’t really help me much. I guess i’ll have to find my own way of writing

[@williamgass9242]

Basically there is no process

[@victorgrauer5834]

I refuse to read a novel by anyone named "Cormac." (His real name, by the way, is Charley McCarthy.) After seeing the bloody awful film version of his novel "No Country for Old Men," I will definitely NOT read anything he's written, even if he reverts to his original name.

[@Lacertilian22]

Sucked in.

[@henriquebraga5266]

No, please, don't go...

[@goodyeoman4534]

Suit yourself, chap.

[@victorgrauer5834]

@@goodyeoman4534 My tolerance for both pretentious pseudonyms and gratuitous violence is zero. Sorry.

[@goodyeoman4534]

@@victorgrauer5834 I found it hard going, and it took me several attempts. I couldn't read more than one of his books in a row. As for the violence, it seems no worse than the average horror or thriller to me.