What You Are Will Make You What

I Suppose The Problem ... Is That We Have An Inside And An Outside. We've Got Problems Both Places, But It's So Hard To Tell Where The One Stops And The Other Takes Up.

Suggestion Is A Literary Strategy.

The Artist Has Some Internal Experience That Produces A Poem, A Painting, A Piece Of Music. Spectators Submit Themselves To The Work, Which Generates An Inner Experience For Them. But Historically It's A Very New, Not To Mention Vulgar, Idea That The Spectator's Experience Should Be Identical To, Or Even Have Anything To Do With, The Artist's. That Idea Comes From An Over-industrialized Society Which Has Learned To Distrust Magic.

A Number Of Things In Dhalgren Are Just Meant To Function As Mysteries. They're Mysteries When The Book Begins, And They're Mysteries When The Book Ends.

I Took My Writing Seriously, And It Seemed To Pay Off.