David Shields
David Shields
David Shieldsis an American author of fiction and nonfiction...
book should endure
A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it.
narrative allies honest
I'm not interested in collage as the refuge of the composition-ally disabled. I'm interested in collage as (to be honest) an evolution beyond narrative.
groups care littles
In my own little way, I feel like I'm part of a group of writers who care deeply about pushing the essay forward.
novel mediums prose
My medium is prose, not the novel.
farm potato seen since
I've never seen a potato farm since I've been down here.
compensate field giant hard less super
It's hard to compensate for a super giant field with something much less than a super giant field.
memories fiction
Anything processed by memory is fiction.
book reading order
If I'm reading a book and it seems truly interesting, I tend to start reading back to front in order not to be too deeply under the sway of progress.
thinking literature serious
I take literature as a really serious human activity. It's not just a playful thing. It can be hilarious and wonderful and performative, but I think it's really serious.
thinking rooms plot
The absence of plot leaves the reader room to think about other things.
distance rumor matter
I don’t know what’s the matter with me, why I’m so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why life feels like a rumor.
momentum narrative mosaics
Momentum, in literary mosaic, derives not from narrative but from the subtle, progressive buildup of thematic resonances.
believe writing data
Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data.
teaching editing miracle
Thomas Jefferson went through the New Testament and removed all the miracles, leaving only the teachings. Take a source, extract what appeals to you, discard the rest. Such an act of editorship is bound to reflect something of the individual doing the editing: a plaster cast of an aesthetic-not the actual thing, but the imprint of it.