I write novels. I'm sorry for anything so far
None of the explanations given in the interviews were irresponsible
Interviewer: Keith Steyon
Interviewee: William Faulkner
Translator: Wang Yiguo
Reporter: Mr. Faulkner, you just said you don't like interviews.
Faulkner: The reason I don't like interviews is because I seem to react strongly to personal issues. If the question is about the work, I try to answer it, and if it is about me, I may or may not answer it, but even if I answer, if I ask the same question again tomorrow, the answer may be different.
Reporter: How do you feel about yourself as a writer?
FAULKNER: If I didn't exist, someone else would take my place, write for me, For Hemingway, for Dostoevsky, for all of us. Evidence of this is that the copyright of Shakespeare's plays involves about three candidates. But what matters is that Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, not who wrote them, but someone wrote them. The artist is insignificant, what matters is his creation, because there is nothing new to say. Shakespeare, Balzac, Homer all wrote the same thing, and if they had lived an extra thousand or two thousand years, no one would have needed the publishers after that.
But even if there seems to be nothing more to say, is it possible that the personality of the writer is not important?
FAULKNER: It's very important for him personally, because it should be said that every other person is busy looking at the work, and it is rare to pay attention to personality.
Reporter: What about your contemporaries?
FAULKNER: None of us have been able to match our dreams of perfection, so my assessment of us is based on our glorious failures to do the impossible. In my opinion, if I could write all my work again, I firmly believe that I would do better, which is the healthiest condition for an artist. This is the reason why he keeps working and trying again; he is confident that every time and this time he will accomplish it and accomplish it satisfactorily. Of course, he will not be able to complete it satisfactorily, which is precisely the reason why this condition is healthy.
Once he has done it satisfactorily, once he has matched the imagery and the dream, there is nothing else to do but cut off his throat and jump from the other side of the perfectly processed minaret. I am a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, and when he finds that he can't write it, he tries to write short stories, which are the most exquisite form after poetry. It was only after his failure to write short stories that he began to write long stories.
Reporter: To be a good novelist, what are the possible rules to follow?
Faulkner: 99% talent... 99% of training... 99% of jobs. He must never be satisfied with his creation, which will never be as good as it may have been. Always dream, always set goals higher than you know your abilities. Don't just try to get over your peers or predecessors, try to surpass yourself. The artist is a creature driven by demons, who do not know why he was chosen, and he is often too busy to take care of his reasons. He is completely super-moral, because in order to complete the work, he will rob, borrow, beg or steal from anyone and everyone.
Reporter: Are you saying that writers should be completely ruthless?
Faulkner: The writer is only responsible for his art. If he were a good writer, he would be completely ruthless. He had a dream, and it was so painful that he had to get rid of it, and only when he got rid of it could he be at peace. In order to write it out, everything goes beyond the side of the ship into the sea: honor, self-esteem, face, security, happiness, everything. A writer would not hesitate if he had to rob his mother; the Greek Urn is worth no less than any number of old ladies.
Reporter: So, can the lack of security, happiness, and honor be an important factor in the creativity of artists?
Faulkner: No, they are important only to the artist's calm and satisfaction, and art has nothing to do with calm and contentment.
Reporter: So, what should the best environment look like for a writer?
Faulkner: Art has nothing to do with the environment, and art doesn't care where it is. If you're going to ask me, the best job arrangement is to ask me to be the owner of a brothel. In my opinion, this is the most perfect environment for the artist to carry out his work. It gave him complete economic freedom, he had no fear and hunger, he had a house to keep warm, and there was nothing but simple bookkeeping and a monthly payment to the local police station. The place is quiet for a few hours in the morning, which is the best working time. At night there was enough social life, and if he was willing to participate, he would not be bored; this gave him a certain place in the social world; he had to do nothing, for there was a mother bustard keeping accounts. The people who lived in the brothel were women and willing to obey him and call him "sir"; all the bootlenders in the neighborhood would call him "sir", and he could call the police by his first name.
The only environment the artist needs, therefore, is all the peace, no matter how lonely, no matter what kind of pleasure he can obtain at a not too high price. All that an inappropriate environment does is raise his blood pressure, and he will spend more time feeling frustrated or hurt. My own experience is that the tools I need to pursue my industry are paper, tobacco, food and a little whiskey.
Reporter: Do you mean bourbon?
FAULKNER: No, I'm not so picky. If there's only Scotch whiskey, then I drink Scotch whiskey.
Reporter: You mentioned economic freedom. Do writers need financial freedom?
FAULKNER: No, the writer doesn't need economic freedom, all he needs is a pencil and some paper. I've never heard of a great work written because I received generous money. A good writer never applies for a fund, he is too busy writing to take care of it. If he is not a first-class writer, then he says that he has no time or economic freedom, and thus deceives others.
Good art can come from thieves, bootleggers, or grooms. Just to find out how much hardship and poverty they can endure is really frightening. People are afraid to find out how stubborn they are. Nothing can destroy a good writer, and the only thing that can change a good writer is death. Good writers don't have time to worry about success or getting rich. Success is negative, like a woman, if you bow down in front of her, she will despise you, so the way to treat her is to let her see the back of your hand, then maybe she will snub you.
Reporter: Does writing a movie script hurt your own writing?
Faulkner: If a person is a first-class writer, nothing can hurt his writing, and if a person is not a first-class writer, then nothing can help him much. If he is not a first-rate writer, then the question is irrelevant, because he has sold his soul for a swimming pool.
Reporter: Do writers compromise when writing movie scripts?
FAULKNER: Always make compromises, because cinema is, by its very nature, a collaboration, and any collaboration is a compromise, because that's what the word compromise means — giving and taking.
Reporter: What are your favorite actors to work with?
FAULKNER: The best I've worked with is Humphrey Bogar. I worked with him on Yes and No and Slumber.
Reporter: Are you still going to write a movie script?
FAULKNER: Yes, I intend to adapt George Orwell's 1984. I have conceived an ending that will prove the argument I have repeatedly stated: man is indestructible because he has simple free will.
Reporter: When writing a movie script, how do you get the best results?
Faulkner: I think the best of my own film scripts are written like this, just before filming, the actors and writers throw the script aside and create the scenes in the actual rehearsals. If I didn't take script writing seriously, or if I felt like I could take script writing seriously, and if I was purely honest with the film and myself, then I wouldn't have tried. But I knew that I would never be a good script writer, and therefore this work would never have the same urgency that my own medium had.
Reporter: You said that writers have to compromise when writing movie scripts. What about writing about his own work? Is he responsible for his readers?
FAULKNER: It's his duty to write it as well as he can; after that whatever responsibility he has left, he can pay it off in any way he likes. I myself was too busy to take care of the public. I don't have time to wonder who's reading my work. I don't care what John Doe thinks of my work or anyone else's. My own opinion is the standard that must be followed, and that is that when I read The Temptation of St. Anton or the Old Testament, the work makes me feel the way I do. They make me feel good, and staring at a bird makes me feel good... You know, if I can be reborn, then I want to return to the world as a vulture. Nothing hates him, is jealous of him, wants him, or needs him. He was never nervous or in danger, and he could eat anything.
William Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962), one of the most influential writers in the history of American literature, a representative of stream-of-consciousness literature in the United States, and a 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, was awarded for "his powerful and artistically unparalleled contributions to contemporary American fiction."
He wrote 19 novels and more than 120 short stories during his lifetime, of which 15 novels and the vast majority of short stories took place in Yorknapatafa County, known as the "York Napatafa Lineage". The main thread is the story of generations of families belonging to different social classes in the town of Jefferson and its suburbs, from 1800 until after World War II. A total of more than 600 famous and surnamed characters appear alternately in various long and short stories. The most representative work is "Noise and Commotion".