{"id":8162,"date":"2008-06-17T08:42:32","date_gmt":"2008-06-17T12:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=8162"},"modified":"2015-06-13T08:18:16","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T12:18:16","slug":"oh-lorrie-moore-i-love-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=8162","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Lorrie Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

I loved reading this recent interview with writer Lorrie Moore<\/a>. There was so much I needed to hear, first of all … and I admire and love her writing so much. And anyone who faces awkward stressful situations by asking herself, “What would Goldie Hawn do?” is pretty much my idol. Because that question can ONLY lead to social grace and humor … and I am going to take it on myself, whenever I feel tense.<\/p>\n

And the following quote has somehow set me free, I don’t even know how else to say it:<\/p>\n

“I was obsessive with writing, but I wasn’t ever disciplined. Because if you’re obsessive you don’t need discipline. You just do it all the time. Why would you impose a regimen, when this is your love?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Someday I’ll explain what is going on in my life right now, but as I’ve said many times before, maybe 5% of my actual life is on my blog – I feel no need to upend my daily experience here, I’m not that kind of blogger – mostly everything is offline – but that one quote from Lorrie Moore, about discipline\/obsessiveness rings SO true … and will be something I keep in mind when I experience self-doubt, or when I take on the world’s<\/i> opinion about what work<\/i> means, as opposed to my own experience of it. Brilliant. In such a culture that we live in, that places a high premium on visible achievement – writing every day can seem like a lazy thing to do. It’s like the people who say, when they hear how much I read, “How do you find the time??” I’ve gone off on the “I don’t have enough time” attitude before<\/a>. If you want to read more, you make the time. It’s that simple. Same as anything else. If you can’t make the time, then it’s not a priority – other things are priorities – and that’s okay. If you want to exercise, you make the time. I will not take the “I don’t have enough time” excuse – EVER. I say this as someone who feels tormented by not having enough time. But that’s the thing: most pet peeves seem to come from people who have a bit of that behavior in themselves. (I mean, some people would never admit that, but those people are self-righteous jagoffs, and we don’t need to pay attention to them!) Something is either a priority for you or it’s not. I wish we could let ourselves off the hook more, when it comes to such questions. If you can say to yourself, “Okay, you know what? I really wish I was more in shape – but right now in my life, it’s just not a priority. There are only so many hours in the day and I would rather do such and such … and so I have to admit to myself that fitness is not a priority. Maybe that will change, but right now, it’s not.” As opposed to feeling harassed<\/i> by the lack of time, and always behind<\/i> or wrong<\/i>. Being a bit more gentle with yourself, in terms of your time, and how you choose to spend it. Same thing with reading. To me, reading is always a priority. And I’m a busy woman. Sometimes I am only able to read a page or two a day, but I always have a book in my bag. I read in line at the movie theatre, I read on the bus, I read in the elevator – I sometimes even read while walking down the street. It’s not something I choose<\/i> to do – I just always make time. There are other activities that I want to take on – but I know it’s not a priority right now – I have other things going on that take precedent, so I’m not going to torment myself with wondering why I can’t do it all. I mean, I DO torment myself … but I try to talk myself out of that clocktower when I find myself there. I have enough self-loathing to deal with. No need to pile it on.<\/p>\n

Lorrie Moore’s comment about not needing discipline to write really resonates with me. It is another thing I do every day … I do not need to remind myself, I do not need to keep a schedule, I just do it. It is obsessive. It keeps me stable, first of all … but it’s also just part of the warp and weft of my life, and I’ve been doing it since I could first pick up a pencil.<\/p>\n

Now. To take that obsession and turn it into something. That’s the artist’s job. That’s when you become conscious. But the discipline thing, at least, I don’t have to worry about.<\/p>\n

Lorrie Moore is one of my favorite present-day writers, and I am looking forward to the new edition of her collected stories.<\/p>\n

I also loved her comment about her ex-husband:<\/p>\n

“It was easy to be a writer around him. Like, right now, I’m seeing somebody else and that’s not easy, because he’s scouring the work for signs of him. But my husband never really did that. It’s good to have someone who is mildly interested and mildly proud, and also slightly uninterested. When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute.” She smiles. “Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you haven’t encountered Lorrie Moore, I cannot recommend her strongly enough.<\/p>\n

A couple posts I have written about Moore:<\/p>\n

Birds of America<\/i> – The story “Willing”<\/a>
\nBirds of America<\/i> – The story ‘Terrific Mother’<\/a>
\nOne of my favorite writers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I loved reading this recent interview with writer Lorrie Moore. There was so much I needed to hear, first of all … and I admire and love her writing so much. And anyone who faces awkward stressful situations by asking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[91],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8162"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103789,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8162\/revisions\/103789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}