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.
A work of art doesn't have to be explained. If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.
This world is not one color or culture. Everybody has a story. To tell that story or see that story reflected through art is extremely valuable to the community. The arts belong to everyone and our work should reflect that diversity.
Theatre for a New Audience is one of America's most admirable and exciting theatre companites...some of the best acted and directed work to be found on American stages, engaging with the canon of world dramatic literature in a vigorous way.
A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.
Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
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