Sometimes I write from the point of view of characters whom I would dislike as people, not as a perverse exercise, but because this cracks the story open and makes me see it in a way I would not see it naturally.
Interpretation
Writing from contrasting perspectives enhances creativity and storytelling depth.
Mary Gaitskill highlights the importance of exploring diverse viewpoints in writing. By adopting the perspectives of characters that one may personally dislike, a writer can unlock new insights and dimensions to the narrative that might otherwise remain undiscovered, ultimately enriching the story's complexity and depth.
In practice
In a writing workshop, one might use this quote to encourage students to explore unconventional character viewpoints.
What is faithfulness, anyway? Can you be unfaithful to your own feelings and faithful to someone else? Is it faithful to lie in bed night after night with someone you love but no longer desire while ardently dreaming of someone else?
A sad person who is so involved with his sadness that he mistakes it for reality will have a hard time seeing himself as anything but sad. For him, the sadness is not a feeling that he experiences - it is him.
What are you thinking?” She asks. -That you are beautiful. That not everyone could see it. I almost became the kind of person who could not.
I am careful about fiction. A novel is not a tract or an essay. If I want to write about land reforms, or Hindu-Muslim relations, or position of women, I can do it as it affects my characters as in 'A Suitable Boy.' I could only write about issues specifically through essays. But I'll do that only if I have something worthwhile to say.
Do not write if there is no tremendous urge to do so. At the heart, there must be an inspiration or muse or one of those old-fashioned things. Else, why bore yourself, destroy other people's interest and kill trees?
Elegance must be the right combination of distinction, naturalness, care and simplicity. Outside this, believe me, there is no elegance. Only pretension.
The reasons that drive me to write are many and the most important are the most secret, I think. Perhaps most of all this: to put something out of death's reach.
The power of art is that it can connect us to one another, and to larger truths about what it means to be alive and what it means to be human.
I write to create red in a world that often appears black and white.
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