There have been times when I'm writing about things that are personally embarrassing. Like any human being, sometimes I can't help but wonder - 'What are the people I know going to think about this?' So I have to remind myself that all is permissible. Art has to be a free space. Language has to be a free space.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of freedom in artistic expression, even when facing personal vulnerability.
William T. Vollmann highlights the struggle between personal embarrassment and the necessity for unfettered expression in art and language. He acknowledges the natural human concern about others' opinions but asserts the need for art to remain a space where anything can be explored and expressed freely, untouched by societal judgments.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of vulnerability in creative writing, this quote can be cited to illustrate the necessity of honesty in art.
Everybody is an expert on one thing - that's what I learned in my high school journalism class - and that's, of course, his own life. And everybody deserves to live and have his story told. And if it doesn't seem like an interesting story, then that's the failure of the listener, or the journalist who retells it badly.
When I'm dying, I want to think I did what I felt was best for the words I was writing. This may mean, at any time, that I won't be publishable anymore.
If you're a film composer, you have the music tell the story of the character.
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning.
The only thing that's important is the legend created by the picture, and not whether it continues to exist itself.
You never know what you do that could be totally out of left field, which actually might work and give something fresh to the whole scene, to the character, whatever. If you have that with a director who then knows how to shape it, either in the direction, in the moment, or in the editing, then that's good.
I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale
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