Lydia Davis Quotes

Lydia Davis — American Writer born on July 15, 1947,

Lydia Davis is an American writer noted for her short stories. Davis is also a novelist, essayist, and translator from French and other languages, and has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary... (wikipedia)

I wrote the first draft of 'Madame Bovary' without studying the previous translations, although I gathered them and took the occasional peek.

I always interrupt work with other work, either in a small way or big way, so that's normal.

I started writing the one-sentence stories when I was translating 'Swann's Way.' There were two reasons. I had almost no time to do my own writing, but didn't want to stop. And it was a reaction to Proust's very long sentences.

I would recommend, definitely, developing a 'day job' that you like - don't expect to make money writing!

Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.

Lydia Davis Quotes

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