“Quartet,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58″ x 38″ image, 70″ x 50″ framed

* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

Interviewer:  Is there any possible formula to follow in order to be a good novelist”

Faulkner:  … Ninety-nine per cent talent… 99 per cent discipline… 99 per cent work.  He must never be satisfied with what he does.  It is never as good as it can be done.  Always shoot higher than you know you can do.  Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.  Try to be better than yourself. 

William Faulkner in Writers at Work:  The Paris Review Interviews First Series, edited, and with an introduction by Malcolm Crowley

Comments are welcome!