“We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken.”
Oscar Wilde book De Profundis
De Profundis (1897)
“The writer’s job is the job of a clown …the clown who also talks about sorrow.”
Paris Review interview (2007)
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Kenzaburō Ōe43
Japanese author 1935Related quotes
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“It is my job, as a writer, to give the world toffee and peanut brittle and tough steak and celery.”
Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer
(23 June 2003)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2003
Context: The world wants oatmeal. It is not my job to give the world oatmeal. It is my job not to be a hack. It is my job to try to make the world chew, lest its lazy jaw muscles atrophy and its collective mandible withers and all its teeth fall out. It is my job, as a writer, to give the world toffee and peanut brittle and tough steak and celery. I write peanut butter sandwiches, not oatmeal. And every time some dolt whines, "I'm confused" or "I don't understand" or "This doesn't make any sense," I should smile and know that I'm doing my job. Not because it is my job to be opaque, but because it is not my job to be transparent.