PS to: "However, 'only
the writing of fiction, the endless re-creation of my fluid self
could keep me more or less sane.'(a great writer has
only himself to copy?*)
[ ]* Who said that, Oscar Wilde or Nabokov? That's an instance of
"autoplagiarism"..
JM: Both, in a way - and behold,
Earnest is back!
"I never travel without my diary. One should
always have something sensational to read in the train.”
― Oscar Wilde,
The Importance of Being Earnest
"Derivative writers seem versatile because they imitate
many others, past and present. Artistic originality has only its own self to
copy."
Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction No.
40
Interviewed by Herbert Gold