Fran Lebowitz on the Process of Great Writing | Collection in Focus

[@matrix2297]

I met Fran this year. She's tiny, practically frail in person yet her presence is gargantuan. There were so many things I wanted to say but I only had about 30 seconds. My contribution to the encounter was so abysmal in relation to my expectations for the moment that it was comical. She was everything all at once. Uncharacteristically polite, on-brand (brazen), endearingly subtle; she sealed the deal with her signature wit. Panicking out of my struggle to resolve the painful (approx. 5 second) silence and fill it with ANYTHING, I said something I would ordinarily cringe at in hindsight. However Fran used my fell-flat-Hail-Mary as a springboard for a quip; an act I consider to be of compassion towards a socially anxious neurotic.

[@popito8366]

What does springboard for a quip mean? Sorry English is not first language

[@cmoran9103]

​​@@popito8366it means Fran made a funny joke out of the OP's awkward comment, which is a polite and tricky thing to do. I'm glad she was kind; real wits, like her and Oscar, see people clearly and care about them deeply.

[@popito8366]

@@cmoran9103 I love that she used her wit in an empathetic way

[@e.k.8835]

"what could be more new york than that? there's a bus stop in front and inside is this" YESSSSSSSS FRAN! Love you.

[@_NAED_]

"There are two kinds of people in New York: the kind of people who have room for books and the kind of people who have books - and they are never the same people." -Fran Lebowitz

[@EtienneLeBeau-b9z]

How about the kind of people in New York that punch women in the face walking down the street?

[@SmithMrCorona]

Truly intelligent people never need to boast about their intelligence. Fran, however, never misses a chance to mention how smart she is.

[@EtienneLeBeau-b9z]

Didn’t she file bankruptcy a few years back?

[@johntechwriter]

@@SmithMrCorona Self-promotion by boasting about her intellect is part of Fran’s shtik. But that said, she means every word!

[@naosu87]

I could listen to her forever.

[@user-dn4rx8ev3j]

I fell into Fran Lebowitz's gravitational pull in 1978. I will orbit said gravitational pull until the end of days.

[@excellent136]

Fran Lebowitz. To the point. Concise. Best advocate for both the Morgan Library and New York. Thank you.

[@alma9rina]

I need 70 hours of this not 5 minutes

[@imattyyy]

I looked up all her interviews after I watched her Netflix show 😂 I'm so glad i got 5 more minutes

[@franzwilde89]

Yes please!

[@natashapbooks]

If the title says "Fran Lebowitz" - it's a thousand percent chance I'll click on the video 😂😁

[@thespenserdavis]

Was just thinking the same thing!

[@micpoc4597]

Ditto

[@brooklynnchick]

Let’s turn your post into the next “me too” moment ❤

[@missamae34]

If Title includes fran, I watch it 1000 times

[@animasuzie]

More of these please! Thank you Morgan 📚

[@dorianhorton6805]

She br9ught a tear to my eye speaking (so briefly) about Oscar Wilde, I felt the exact same sentiment regarding her feelings about my namesake!

[@fleurafricaine5740]

I imagine one day I’ll be walking in Manhattan and see Fran waiting to cross at an intersection. I’ll exchange a pleasantry or ask an irrelevant question. She’ll recover from the affront and with a twinkle in her eye answer disarmingly just as the light changes. I’ll remember it forever and that’ll be that.

[@keithnichols7926]

I visited the British Library archives and asked to see something written by the 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys. They brought me a letter to someone about some business between him and Pepys. I'd read the diaries in print, but never felt the reality of Pepys as I did being alone with that one page. Even viewing such items in glass cases doesn't stir the same feelings.

[@franciscoleal6339]

love hearing small tidbits of Fran and Toni Morrisons friendship ❤

[@johntechwriter]

Yes, but they had major differences. Perhaps their commonality is each is a better speaker than a writer.

[@axucaroso]

​@@johntechwriterIsn't that amazing! You expect scholarly discourse, all dry and technical, but Ms Toni and Ms Fran can orate and speechify!

[@rh84394]

Fran is the perfect example of wit equaling intelligence.

[@twerkinthecityhuh6340]

Fran has the same schtick over n over

[@cmoran9103]

My heart is totally full listening to her loving loving loving Oscar Wilde. I'm so proud to be an Irishman like him, and queer to boot, and I get MY bus from the stop outside his house in Dublin. Thanks Morgan Library for this video, I'll visit when next in New York.

[@cmoran9103]

Please let us know if we can read that whole letter from Oscar online.

[@williamneal9076]

Thank you, Fran!

[@BigEdDunkel]

Love the Morgan Library. In the late 90s it introduced me to illuminated manuscripts . The craftsmanship was so fucking impressive I went twice.

[@annepokras551]

I enjoyed and appreciated this post of a particular Morgan Library trip. Not being an intellectual, I thought there was a contradiction - maybe purposeful, maybe irrelevant to you - that art should be useless, but then, great writers influence people whether they know it or not and we must read these particular great writers. And you referred to great writers as artists. I just found that interesting, and yes it influenced me in some way.

[@focusedfreebird]

Amazing enlightenments! I could listen to Fran talk all day long.

[@Ukedc259]

She’s pretty amazing. Like the library she’s sitting in.

[@Ephilates2024]

She’s also a New York treasure.

[@EtienneLeBeau-b9z]

She’s second only to Bernie Goetz.

[@jamesalanstephensmith7930]

Will go, Fran!

[@johntechwriter]

A natural treasure. Fran, not the library. Regarding the ability to write finished prose without extensive revision: This can be accomplished only by a handful of the very best authors. Such people can sometimes be recognized by their ability to speak in finished prose. Among them, of course, was Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest raconteurs of the 19th century. In the century that followed, we have New York Times film critic Pauline Kael. I’ve seen her interviewed and she spoke in perfect paragraphs. And then there was Christopher Hitchens. Though I had some issues with his thinking, I was also aware that after a boozy lunch with colleagues, he would return to his office and type out a thousand-word column for the evening edition. His manuscripts were nearly as pure as the driven snow. Who am I to argue with such an intellect? Nobody, that’s who. Oh! And Fran’s pristine commentary is right up there with the best of them!

[@Greenplanet949]

Thank you Fran. You are one of our treasures as well.

[@juliemullen365]

Not enough more more more!!👏❤

[@jamesallison4875]

Fran, you look so natural there.

[@ummon995]

Fran, although she’d probably cringe at what I’m going to write, is a national treasure.

[@EtienneLeBeau-b9z]

I think everybody is cringing at your remark.

[@janefaceinthewind6260]

I'm not cringing.

[@cmoran9103]

​@@EtienneLeBeau-b9z only you, only you, only you.

[@FPOAK]

I'm not sure which book has influenced me most in life but I'm positive which preface has

[@gy2gy246]

I think this was clipped from a longer video.

Love this convo! Love you Fran! Thank you!

[@MarciaMatthews]

When I first saw her on a talk show, I thought she was Fran Lively-wits.

[@nickbarcheck1019]

I adore Fran Lebowitz.

[@superdreamIndie]

I feel like these could be much longer

[@SofieIndie]

She’s for sure one of my favorite people ❤

[@pastielle18]

In Netflix who is main character in pretend its a City?

[@guestguest7543]

Yes. She’s the focus of that program.

[@katherinecruz3849]

Guernica by Pablo Picasso may be an exception.

[@iestynovich]

Divine. Thank you.

[@kadenkruz4141]

OMG I love you so very much Fran. Capricorn 1950 here. You must have known Truman Capote. I think you owe us a history book my darling. You have got to do it. Got to. Or else it will be lost. OK?

[@hitchhiker_1969]

Somebody tell Fran that when she's in Buffalo she can page through Mark Train's original manuscript for Huckleberry Finn in his own hand with lots of corrections at the Erie County Library.

[@idklol4197]

what is she talking about "wit cannot be the product of effort" as she's looking down on the manuscript of Dorian Grey full of crossed out words and rewritten passages?

[@BansheeMilk]

I would love to go there someday

[@annalisavajda252]

I wonder why she says it's unusual Mark Twain being the most popular writer and also a great writer are not lots of best selling authors great that's why they sell so many copies?

[@peacesound1101]

I am grateful for these custodians of books, art-- but she is not an artist, and has made one big mistake: art is hardly "useless", and meant to create a "mood"; mood is not the aim of art but a quality, art ALWAYS has a real "useful" purpose, just that once that purpose is realized it then becomes "useless" but retains it's beauty. We might admire a photo realist painting, but may not know the purpose was to show what a "photographic" painting really looked like, because at that time the takeover of art by abstract art relied on the belief that realism was nothing more than a photographic copy of the external world, the photo-realists were saying "THIS is what a photographic painting looks like" , Gertrude Stein wrote in a style where dialogue was mostly what the characters were thinking to emphasize knowing the hidden thoughts causing actions--examples are endless. What separates great art from the rest is it surpasses it's aesthetic qualities and creates change distinctly different from the way science and politics creates change.

[@user-dn4rx8ev3j]

Some opinions are not meant to be shared.

[@jujulaw24]

❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@37Dionysos]

Mark Twain of course took the "voice" of "Huck Finn" from his shoe-shine moments talking with a young Black man who regaled him with stories and frank rapport. "If I'd a-knowed what a trouble it was to make a book, I warn't never a-tackled it, and I ain't a-goin' to no more."

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

“Art is useless.” It’s also one of the few things we seek to preserve. Or destroy. This feels like a statement a writer might tell themself to get out of their own head. Patently nonsense, though. Art is literally the only reason we know most historical events and cultures, their values, their norms, their commonalities and foibles, their in groups and out groups, their gods and their devils, why they went to war or chose to die. It’s everything we’ve ever worked to make. That’s like saying life is useless. To its own end, yes. It’s made use OF, though, categorically. Perhaps that frightens some who spend their life in service of it. Seems like cowardice to me. Art will be made use of regardless of what you sought to create it for, even if you thought it was for nothing. If it gets banned, that tells you everything. You don’t ban a thing for being idle.

[@lucysweeney8347]

Thank you for this excellent explanation.

[@jasonmademusic]

You need only to read the rest of his letter to understand. Here: “My dear Sir Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility. If the contemplation of a work of art is followed by activity of any kind, the work is either of a very second-rate order, or the spectator has failed to realise the complete artistic impression. A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one. Truly yours, Oscar Wilde”

[@gy2gy246]

By art being "useless," she means it's not utilitarian, but purely hedonic.

[@kamicastillo1451]

❤

[@MythsScamsLies]

Fran hasn't written ANYTHING that has been published in MORE than 40 years. She's not someone who should be advising others on how to write.

[@cheric35]

My thought exactly 😂

[@mistychenoweth9716]

Without gloves? Oh my God.

[@late_privktorian_era]

Its fine

[@iheick768]

I work a lot in archives and it is actually better to not use gloves. You get a better feeling and grip of the page and are therefore are less likely to damage it.

[@christophermcmahon3069]

Only con of no gloves is oils on skin. Freshly washed and dried hands resolve this. There are many more cons by using gloves. Much much more likely to accidentally fold or tear the brittle pages, etc.

[@superdreamIndie]

Two kinds of people in NYC, those who have books and those who have room for it.

[@deuphoria2587]

I'd marry Fran if she would take me. ❤

[@peacesound1101]

Heck, old p---y is still p---y, that's what I say.

[@carlosayala8171]

I have no room for books yet I have tons books 😂

[@joshfischer3360]

Anything with Fran is moist! Love her

[@nathanielstephenbaue]

How can this person have so many fans? She is an advocate of revenge, hate, and holding grudges. Sad.

[@samgaston90]

I eat up whatever this woman says

[@panfiloperez6685]

My mum will turn 80 in a couple months and yet Fran looks 10 years older !! don´t smoke. hope fran´s ok and not very sick. cheerios

[@lvan_studio]

[@SofaWrld]

I think saying "art is useless" is a bit misleading.. creating a mood is quite useful, I'm thinking to help cope with mental health issues for example

[@SueAnnaJoe]

Not an accurate title

[@kevinharrison3265]

Correct. Reading gets so little respect, here 6/19/2024. Wit? So much less.❤

[@SmithMrCorona]

Fran Lebowitz is just another know-it-all boomer

[@garyspence2128]

Fewer of us every day. You're gonna miss us when we're gone, and you youngsters won't have anyone around to tell you how to do or understand stuff...

[@SmithMrCorona]

@@garyspence2128 I'm 50 years old. I've heard it all at this point. Most everything your generation has blabbered has been either bunk, or just re-hashing bits of pop culture from when you were in your teens and 20s. You bitched and moaned about your parents, and now your bitching and moaning about 'kids today'. Meanwhile, you took credit for things you didn't do, all while doing your best to make the world a more polluted, stinking place.

[@tonymoon7741]

@@garyspence2128 I'm in my mid-40s. The entire public educational system has been destroyed by your generation. Nobody is learning s#it from you guys, unless it's how to serve jesus and corporate America, or about tired pop cutler from the 60s.

[@tamerofhorses2200]

@@garyspence2128 I can reassure you, no one's going to miss your sorry, hedonistic, irresponsible asses. Bye bye.

[@EtienneLeBeau-b9z]

Yup look at the prices she sells her photographs for.

[@mdaria772]

misleading title!

[@MarciaMatthews]

“Art is useless.”

[@johnmurray6407]

but she doesn't write....

[@haifa4220]

insufferable

[@claudiamanta1943]

4:27 😍 Heaven might be real, after all.

[@MisterMan7516]

She wrote two books. Whatever.

[@ChrisPeck-niganma]

Fran Lebowitz wrote some stuff early in her career but I think in the last 40 or 50 years she has just given talks. Does she talk from an outline or just improvise?