98.18

From Project Mailer
Norman Mailer: Works and Days
Navigation
Frontmatter
PrefaceLennon IntroductionLucas IntroductionAcknowledgments and Appreciations
Bibliographies
First EditionsKey TextsBibliographiesBiographiesCriticismCultural Backgrounds
Works
Works IndexNM’s IntroductionsThe Big BiteMailer for MayorAbbott Affair
Days
Days IndexImportant Dates
Index
Index of NamesWorks CategoriesDays Categories
Wikipedia book BooksProject page Projects

“At the Point of My Pen.” In Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction. Edited by Will Blythe, 3–4. Boston: Little, Brown, 1998. Mailer leads of this collection of essays by 26 writers, including Rick Bass, Robert Stone, Richard Ford, and Jayne Anne Phillips. He retells the story about what Jean Malaquais told him about continuing as a writer even though it was torture: “The only time I know the truth,” Malaquais said, “is when it reveals itself at the point of my pen.” Mailer finds this answer to be “incontestably true.” Rpt: 13.1.