Source: New York Magazine
Lovely quote. Interview with Martin Amis; interesting throughout with plenty other gems.
It sounds schmaltzy to say, but fiction is much more to do with love than people admit or acknowledge. The novelist has to not only love his characters but also to love the reader. The difference between a Nabokov, who in almost all his novels, nineteen novels, gives you his best chair and his best wine and his best conversation. Compare that to Joyce, who, when you arrive at his house, is nowhere to be found, and then you stumble upon him, making some disgusting drink of peat and dandelion in the kitchen. He doesn’t really care about you. Henry James ended up that way. They fall out of love with the reader. And the writing becomes a little distant.
James Joyce Cocktail?
- 1 1/2 ounces Peat
- 3/4 ounce dandelion
- 3/4 ounce Cointreau
- 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
The original James Joyce Cocktail is here.