Inside Louis Armstrong’s days
For his Louis Armstrong bio, Pops, Terry Teachout had access to 600+ hours of recordings — music, “dinner parties, getting high in the dressing room…”
For his Louis Armstrong bio, Pops, Terry Teachout had access to 600+ hours of recordings — music, “dinner parties, getting high in the dressing room…”
“I would like to have been a homicide detective, much more than being a writer.” From Roberto Bolaño’s last interview.
“To those students who showed any promise she would give copies of Nabokov, or EM Forster… Otherwise, she would give them Raymond Carver.” (Via.)
I’ve written plenty of autobiographical essays, and I’m sure I’ll continue to write them, but at the LA Times I try to explain why I’m working on a novel rather than a memoir, even though I’m mining my own life for the book. I’m fascinated, in general, by the relationship between truth and invention in fiction, and have posted on . . .
Haven’t read National Book Award winner Colum McCann’s fiction yet, but I like the advice he gave Marlon James: Risk sentimentality.