What E.L. Doctorow said on Book TV

Ragtime, Billy Barthgate, Book of Daniel are some of E.L. Doctorow's prized writing.

A recent interview with E.L. Doctorow on Book TV charmed me.

There is one particular thing he said that seems to echo what God often says in Heavenletters™.Asked a detailed question about how he writes and how he plans his writing etc., E. L. Doctorow responded:

I make a point not to know too much.

That one sentence is beautiful. It says so much.

All the knowledge about storywriting can only go so far.  Great writing has to come from a deeper level. How could great writing possibly come from mechanics, calculations, and formulas.  Great writing can't be contrived.

One of the things that bothered me in English classes was the idea that an author was supposed to sit down to outline what he was going to write.  To my mind, that would take out all the joy and creativity. I never was able to believe that an author could or would anaylze his work before he had written it. My feeling was that after a work was written, then an author could see what he had done and then perhaps tighten and adjust the work.

Innocence doesn't mean ignorance.

I have read that Einstein discovered his theories when he was innocently riding in a boat. He didn't think his solutions. They came to him.

This seems to be a theme of Heavenletters -- to not always be in the intellect but rather to come from the innocent level of the Unknown.