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Madison Smartt Bell Quotes
American
-
Novelist
August 1, 1957
I have always had a mystical attitude toward inspiration. That's my nature.
Madison Smartt Bell
Attitude
Nature
Always
Inspiration
Mystical
Had
Toward
Normally, most writers don't say, 'I'm going into a mild hypnotic trance.' Typically, they don't know how they do it. Most people, when they have a good experience writing, they're well placed in that state, which is also sometimes called a 'flow state.' If you don't have trouble, you don't have to think about it.
Madison Smartt Bell
Good
You
Experience
People
Flow
Hypnotic
Mild
Normally
Placed
Trance
About
Also
Going
How
Know
Most
Say
Sometimes
State
Think
Trouble
Well
Which
Writers
Writing
Our cultural capital has changed tremendously on its way into the twenty-first century. Manhattan has been secured and sanitized; it's smoke- and trans-fat-free. In the boroughs, many of the old jungles have been cleared as well.
Madison Smartt Bell
Smoke
Way
Old
Well
Capital
Cleared
Manhattan
Secured
Tremendously
Twenty-First
Been
Century
Changed
Cultural
Has-Been
Many
Our
Haiti was founded by African slaves who rose against their European masters, had a revolution, and created a new state. There is no other such event in Western history.
Madison Smartt Bell
History
New
Who
Rose
Founded
Haiti
Masters
Revolution
Slaves
African
Against
Created
European
Event
Had
Other
State
Western
Hemingway's minimalism is based on the psychological mechanics of repression. An echo of his approach can be detected in a favorite trope of 1980s minimalists: a pattern of reference to dire secrets and hidden wounds these authors didn't realize they were supposed to have imagined.
Madison Smartt Bell
Secrets
Hidden
Realize
Favorite
Authors
Dire
Echo
Hemingway
Imagined
Mechanics
Minimalism
Pattern
Psychological
Reference
Repression
Wounds
1980s
Approach
Based
His
Supposed
Were
In 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' Hemingway cozies up to revolution by romanticizing it (and not only with those execrable love scenes).
Madison Smartt Bell
Love
Only
Revolution
Up
Bell
Hemingway
Scenes
Those
Whom
I had been an abject fan of Robert Stone since the early eighties, when I borrowed a copy of 'A Flag for Sunrise' to read on a plane to Rome. I was twenty-something, with a first novel under my belt.
Madison Smartt Bell
Sunrise
Stone
Copy
Flag
Abject
Belt
Borrowed
Eighties
Plane
Robert
Rome
Been
Early
Fan
First
Had
Novel
Read
Since
I had a house in Haiti, in the hills above the North Atlantic coast. The house appeared as if out of a dream: my dream to have a foothold in the country. Like many concepts do in Haiti, the phrase 'pied a terre' became literal, material.
Madison Smartt Bell
Country
Like
Dream
House
Appeared
Atlantic
Coast
Concepts
Haiti
Hills
Literal
Phrase
Above
Became
Had
Many
Material
North
Out
To me, there is nothing more soothing than the song of a mosquito that can't get through the mesh to bite you.
Madison Smartt Bell
Me
You
Song
Nothing
Bite
Mesh
Mosquito
Soothing
Get
More
Than
Through
One can't do anything alone in Haiti. Sharing and cooperation are so deeply woven into the culture that sometimes it's hard to have a separate thought.
Madison Smartt Bell
Alone
Culture
Sometimes
Sharing
Cooperation
Haiti
Separate
Woven
Anything
Deeply
Hard
Thought
Since the 1960s, exile for Haitians is a condition that ends only to begin again.
Madison Smartt Bell
Only
Begin
Condition
Exile
Haitian
1960s
Again
Ends
Since
The country is too often assumed to be a backward place: The First World has trouble remembering that Haitians were two centuries ahead of us in abolishing slavery and in extending full rights of citizenship to everyone, regardless of race.
Madison Smartt Bell
World
Ahead
Country
Slavery
Abolish
Assumed
Backward
Centuries
Citizenship
Extending
First World
Haitian
Regardless
Remembering
Everyone
First
Full
Often
Place
Race
Rights
Too
Trouble
Two
Us
Were
I don't call myself a very good Christian, but I think I know one when I see one, and I also think I know when I don't.
Madison Smartt Bell
Myself
Good
Think
Know
Also
Call
Christian
I See
I Think
See
Very
John Fahey, thought during his lifetime to be possibly more than a little crazy, was the author of some thirty albums of gnomically introverted droning guitar instrumentals, which I listened to heavily in my teens and twenties; I even produced an hour or so of banjo music in an imitative John Fahey style.
Madison Smartt Bell
Music
Guitar
Crazy
Style
Albums
Author
Banjo
Imitative
Introverted
Lifetime
Listened
Produced
Teens
Thirty
Twenties
Even
His
Hour
John
Little
More
Possibly
Some
Than
Thought
Which
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