William Maxwell
William Maxwell
William Keepers Maxwell, Jr.was an American editor, novelist, short story writer, essayist, children's author, and memoirist. He served as a fiction editor at The New Yorker from 1936 to 1975. An editor devoted to his writers, Maxwell became a legendary mentor and confidant to many of the most prominent authors of his day. Although best known as an editor, Maxwell was a highly respected and award winning novelist and short story writer. His stature as a celebrated author has grown...
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth16 August 1908
curiosity detail generation lacking landscape longer mind mostly older satisfy turn view whom
The view after 70 is breathtaking. What is lacking is someone, anyone, of the older generation to whom you can turn when you want to satisfy your curiosity about some detail of the landscape of the past. There is no longer any older generation. You have become it, while your mind was mostly on other matters.
stopped totally unaware wife
My wife has to tell me I haven't said anything all day. I've stopped talking, and I'm totally unaware of it.
achieved arise balance both changes friend great grew including issues marriage mostly moving relationships son success toward
Wilkinson acknowledges, ''but I mostly side-stepped them. Still, in any relationship, including marriage, issues arise when the balance changes drastically or great success is achieved suddenly. It's only natural. You're both moving toward the same point, and some accommodation must be made. In my case, I grew out of being Bill's son to being something like a friend and colleague.
past views curiosity
The view after seventy is breathtaking. What is lacking is someone, anyone, of the older generation to whom you can turn when you want to satisfy your curiosity about some detail of the landscape of the past. There is no longer any older generation. You have become it, while your mind was mostly on other matters
sadness patient kind
His sadness was of the kind that is patient and without hope.
daughter children typewriters
My younger daughter told me recently that when she was a child she thought the typewriter was a toy that I went into my room and closed the door and played with.
sunset dark light
Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep.
soul cameras lenses
Love, even of the most ardent and soul-destroying kind, is never caught by the lens of the camera.
memories mind goes-on
What we refer to confidently as memory is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling.
spring lying home
Sometimes she goes out to work as a practical nurse, and comes home and sits by the kitchen table soaking her feet in a pan of hot water and Epsom salts. When she gets into bed and the springs creak under her weight, she groans with the pleasure of lying stretched out on an object that understands her so well.
nails circumstances magnet
The nail doesn't choose the time or the circumstances in which it is drawn to the magnet
dog hunting imagination
If you turn the imagination loose like a hunting dog, it will often return with the bird in its mouth.
doors gone get-back
I had inadvertently walked through a door that I shouldn’t have gone through and couldn’t get back to the place I hadn’t meant to leave.
emulation reader moved
A writer is a reader who is moved to emulation.