This Writing Life

Episode 53 - David Gates: Part 4

Listen Later
In the fourth and penultimate part of our podcast with David Gates, we set out by talking about money - how to earn it, keep writing, earn money from writing.

----more----Gates recalls his 29 years at Newsweek before shifting to:

  • how long he can write at any one stretch
  • being a relatively late-starter
  • 'There is something quaint and old-fashioned about being a writer'

  • Desolation Row - music vs literature
  • literary critical ambitions: dissertations and elaborate theories
  • Ann Beattie - marriage and inspiration

  • 'I was astonished that she was making literature out of lives like ours...It never occurred to me'
  • working off influence: 'I cannot be Beckett...How can I be me?'
  • Barthelme, Pynchon - postmodernism?
  • Gates and music: 'I can see why you would devote your life to that if you could have that hour of absolutely transcendent beauty'
  • Gates and religion: 'I am so glad you asked about that...'
  • Gates, romance, divorce: 'Do we have trouble with intimacy? Did I sit around thinking too much?'
  • characters and temporariness.
    • The fifth and final part to follow.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    This Writing LifeBy James Kidd
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    1 ratings