Erica Jong, Writer and Poet

Did I ever tell you ...

Erica Jong, a favourite poet and writer of mine, has a weekly Tips for writers section on her website. She quotes someone and then writes a reply.

The main characters in a novel must necessarily have some kinship to the author, they come out of his body as a child comes out of the womb, then the umbilical cord is cut and they grow into independence. The more the author knows of his own character the more he can distance himself from his invented characters and the more room they have to grow in.
--Graham Greene

Is it autobiographical? they ask, they always ask. What a silly question! Of course it is and of course it isn’t! It comes out of your marrow and out of the blue. The more it comes out of your marrow the truer it is, and the more it comes out of the blue the greater the chance its truth will also be the reader’s truth.