Literary Birthday – 11 May – Stanley Elkin

Stanley Elkin was born on 11 May 1930 and died on 31 May 1995.

Stanley Elkin Quotes

1. Writing is an exercise in sculpture, chipping away at the rock until you find the nose.
2. I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope.
3. Like a lot of what happens in novels, inspiration is a sort of spontaneous combustion – the oily rags of the head and heart.
4. What I enjoy about fiction – the great gift of fiction – is that it gives language an opportunity to happen.
5. The fact that we die is one of the more interesting things that happen to us. Fiction ought to be about bottom lines, and that’s as bottom-line as you can get.

Stanley Elkin was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His satirical fiction revolved around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships. Encyclopaedia Britannica says: ‘Elkin was known for his extraordinary flights of language and imaginative tragicomic explorations of contemporary life.’ He is the author of The Living End.

Source for image: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stanley_elkin.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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