David Foster Wallace interview on "Infinite Jest" and "Brief Interviews" w/ Lewis Frumkes (08/1999)

David Foster Wallace discusses Infinite Jest and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

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20:12
“I sometimes also get letters from just like regular civilian people. They’re often very moving and they’re often from young men. And the tone is, ‘I read such-and-such of yours and I really really liked it. And I too want to be a writer. And I just don’t know whether you can help me, but is there some way that I can do stuff that I can be sure is as good and as likeable as I find your stuff.' And for some reason these letters really get to me. And it’s in writing back to some of these kids that I’ve discovered that … what they’re doing is they’re afraid. They’re afraid that they’re going to invest themselves and they’re going to invest their time and their stuff isn’t going to be any good. And they want to know: is there a formula, is there a technique. I mean, there’s a whole industry of these how-to books that depend on this. And what I’ll end up writing back to them is that I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The bad news is, no. There is no technique. And learn to love this fear because it will be your companion for the rest of your– The good news is that we all go through it. And that if you want to keep doing this, the secret is not really so much to learn the secret techniques so that you don’t feel this fear anymore, but in fact to abide in this fear. Because the stuff, at least for me, that’s difficult about writing isn’t the time or the work. Because when it’s going well, that’s a labor of love. The hard thing is the fear. The fear that here’s this thing that I’ve tried really hard on and I think is really good and I’m gonna give it to you and you’re going to smile that kind of sickening polite smile and I’m going to be able to tell that you think it’s excrement. And what is that going to say about me. And at least in my experience, that fear never goes away."

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