3 ms·

>Kurt Vonnegut once said that no one should start writing before the age of 40. Do you by any chance have a source for that quote? Vonnegut has so many great q

>Kurt Vonnegut once said that no one should start writing before the age of 40. Do you by any chance have a source for that quote? Vonnegut has so many great quotes, but I couldn't find the one you mentioned.

roymurdock 8y ago
I don't have the Vonnegut quote and don't remember him saying this in his semi autobiographical A Man Without A Country (he wrote his first novel at 30), but here's a Bertrand Russel quote on the subject: “To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of is efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile.” from The Conquest of Happiness
- zeroego 8y ago
  Ah, I love Bertrand Russel. Thanks for sharing!
- marmot777 8y ago
  The idea is to experience a lot of the world as each experience means you’re more likes to have something to say that will be useful, compelling, and captivating to other people.
- galfarragem 8y ago
  Resuming: to write you need to have something interesting to tell.
  - mortenjorck 8y ago
    I started a novel ten years ago because I thought I had a bunch of cool science fiction ideas. I never got very far writing it. And yet I never really stopped thinking about it, working on its universe, occasionally taking notes and making outlines. Only much more recently, having trashed most of the original science fiction, replacing it with more social and economic speculation, I realized what it was actually about – this story finally had a reason to exist, a mission. This is what drives me to write it now: Not the fun of imagining an escapist future, but the urgency of exploring a world we might find ourselves in. My best idea for this novel turned out to be waiting to write it.
- hnuser355 8y ago
  All of those seem like they’re actually much worse career choices than being a writer. Why would he recommend people to do this? Is it a joke Reminds me of some weirdo bodybuilder on YouTube who advised a viewer suffering from depression to become a mercenary in Africa to cure it
  - roymurdock 8y ago
    read the whole thing in context and it might make more sense...basically he's saying don't be a self absorbed a hole and go out into the world and do things
    - mikekchar 8y ago
      Just to give the context, OCR text of the book: https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/2015.222834.The-Conquest_djvu.txt https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/2015.222... Search for "talented". This is such a great quote I had to read it in some context and although I've only read a few pages around the quote it seems that he is talking about tragedy and specifically the idea of how one escapes from essentially being a nobody in the world. "...the death of Cinna the poet is comic, whereas the deaths of Cesar, Brutus and Cassius are tragic." (Speaking of the works of Shakespeare). The idea is that our concept of tragedy is bound up with the consequence to society rather than the consequence to an individual. So if you die having accomplished nothing of note, we feel that we have wasted our time -- no tragedy has resulted from our death. From that perspective, I think he's trying to say that instead of writing because you want to make a mark, you should try to avoid writing. That desire to do something notable will cause you to ultimately feel as though you have failed -- we can never overcome our own ambitions. But if you go to extreme lengths to avoid writing and fail to succeed, then your writing will never seem (to you) to be a waste of time. It will be of great importance (if only to you).

roymurdock 8y ago

I don't have the Vonnegut quote and don't remember him saying this in his semi autobiographical A Man Without A Country (he wrote his first novel at 30), but here's a Bertrand Russel quote on the subject: “To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of is efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile.” from The Conquest of Happiness

zeroego 8y ago
Ah, I love Bertrand Russel. Thanks for sharing!
marmot777 8y ago
The idea is to experience a lot of the world as each experience means you’re more likes to have something to say that will be useful, compelling, and captivating to other people.
galfarragem 8y ago
Resuming: to write you need to have something interesting to tell.
- mortenjorck 8y ago
  I started a novel ten years ago because I thought I had a bunch of cool science fiction ideas. I never got very far writing it. And yet I never really stopped thinking about it, working on its universe, occasionally taking notes and making outlines. Only much more recently, having trashed most of the original science fiction, replacing it with more social and economic speculation, I realized what it was actually about – this story finally had a reason to exist, a mission. This is what drives me to write it now: Not the fun of imagining an escapist future, but the urgency of exploring a world we might find ourselves in. My best idea for this novel turned out to be waiting to write it.
hnuser355 8y ago
All of those seem like they’re actually much worse career choices than being a writer. Why would he recommend people to do this? Is it a joke Reminds me of some weirdo bodybuilder on YouTube who advised a viewer suffering from depression to become a mercenary in Africa to cure it
- roymurdock 8y ago
  read the whole thing in context and it might make more sense...basically he's saying don't be a self absorbed a hole and go out into the world and do things
  - mikekchar 8y ago
    Just to give the context, OCR text of the book: https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/2015.222834.The-Conquest_djvu.txt https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/2015.222... Search for "talented". This is such a great quote I had to read it in some context and although I've only read a few pages around the quote it seems that he is talking about tragedy and specifically the idea of how one escapes from essentially being a nobody in the world. "...the death of Cinna the poet is comic, whereas the deaths of Cesar, Brutus and Cassius are tragic." (Speaking of the works of Shakespeare). The idea is that our concept of tragedy is bound up with the consequence to society rather than the consequence to an individual. So if you die having accomplished nothing of note, we feel that we have wasted our time -- no tragedy has resulted from our death. From that perspective, I think he's trying to say that instead of writing because you want to make a mark, you should try to avoid writing. That desire to do something notable will cause you to ultimately feel as though you have failed -- we can never overcome our own ambitions. But if you go to extreme lengths to avoid writing and fail to succeed, then your writing will never seem (to you) to be a waste of time. It will be of great importance (if only to you).