Phillip Roth feels your pain

[dawinsor]

Yesterday's NYT had an interview with Phillip Roth in which he talked about retiring from writing. Here's what he said:

I no longer have the stamina to endure the frustration. Writing is frustration — it’s daily frustration, not to mention humiliation. It’s just like baseball: you fail two-thirds of the time.” He went on: “I can’t face any more days when I write five pages and throw them away. I can’t do that anymore.”

I figure if Phillip Roth can be frustrated and have to toss pages, we're all entitled.

[Phaeal]

I prefer to think that I have no failed pages, only pages I haven't fixed yet.

[TheKoB]

If I remember it correctly, Kafka wasn't overly fond of his work and destroyed it most of the time.
He was embarrased about his seminal work "Das Schloss" and wanted it burned, but his buddy preserved it and now it belongs to the canon of world literature....

I guess it's okay to be hard on your own work.

[mccardey]

Originally Posted by Jamesaritchie

Roth is a nutjob of the first order. Always has been. A very good writer, but as nutty as a squirrel's last bowel movement.

And he whines way, way too much over things no sane writer would even notice.

Frustrated and himiliated, my eye. The only thing frustrating and humiliating about writing is how writer's like Roth behave.

Oh, James...

(Can't help myself. i just like saying it )