Kathy Acker: Where does she get off?
Context: I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it. And the riffs are about timing. And about sex.
Writing for me is about my freedom. When I was a kid, my parents were like monsters to me, and the world extended from them. They were horrible. And I was this good little girl — I didn't have the guts to oppose them. They told me what to do and how to be. So the only time I could have any freedom or joy was when I was alone in my room. Writing is what I did when I was alone with no one watching me or telling me what to do. I could do whatever I wanted. So writing was really associated with body pleasure — it was the same thing. It was like the only thing I had.
“For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz.”
Paris Review interview (1956)
Context: For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. Much of the time life is a sort of rhythmic progression of three characters. If one tells oneself that life is like that, one feels it less arbitrary.
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Françoise Sagan 34
French writer 1935–2004Related quotes
“A certain ambiguity of rhythm is one of the beauties of a poem”
The Anatomy of Poetry, Marjoie Boulton, Routledge & Kegan, London 1953.
“I write music with my mouth — first lyrics, then song, then rhythm.”
On his creative process in “An Interview with Tato Laviera, the King of Nuyorican Poetical Migrations” https://www.latinorebels.com/2012/07/11/an-interview-with-tato-laviera-the-king-of-nuyorican-poetical-migrations/ in Latino Rebels (2012 Jul 11)
Quoted in "What'd I Say?" : The Atlantic Story : 50 Years of Music (2001) by Ahmet M. Ertegun; also partially quoted in What Is This Thing Called Jazz?: African American Musicians As Artists, Critics, and Activists (2002) by Eric C. Porter, p. 118, and Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz And the Making of the Sixties (2005) by Scott Saul, p. 154
Context: Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra run around the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.
Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 21
“Rhythm includes metre, but metre is a relatively small part of rhythm.”
Anatomy of Poetry (1953)
As quoted in "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/dolly-parton-gee-shes-really-nice (7 December 1980), by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert
1980s
on working in Hollywood
Reported by musician Michael Feinstein, transcript of * Fresh Air Celebrates Frank Loesser's 100th Birthday
http://www.npr.org/2010/06/29/128169934/fresh-air-celebrates-frank-loesser-s-100th-birthday
Fresh Air
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/
Host: Terry Gross, Guest: Michael Feinstein
NPR
WHYY
Philadelphia
2009-06-29
2:34
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=128169934
Section 2
The Einstein Intersection (1967)