“I think that there must be a point
of self-immersion in a story that is a point of no return. You get far enough
in that the story has really touched you to the core and deeply troubled you
and made you unhappy and fearful, and then how do you get out of that? I'm a
writer, so my way of getting out of that is to write.” – Helen Garner
Born in Australia on this date in
1942, Garner is known for incorporating and adapting her personal experiences
into her fiction, something that has brought her both praise and criticism,
particularly with her novels, Monkey Grip and The Spare Room.
Award-winning for both her fiction
and nonfiction (she also has won acclaim for her screenwriting), she said “I
think some people wished I'd kept myself out of the book. But I kind of insist
on it because I want the reader to share my engagement with the material, if
you like, not pretend that I'm doing it completely intellectually.
“Writers seem to me to be people who
need to retire from social life and do a lot of thinking about what's happened
- almost to calm themselves,” she once said.
“I think writers are very anxious.”
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