Famous Writers Always Seem to be Annoyed
Not to generalize from one anecdote, but Doris Lessig, the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Literature, is a rather testy author. Is it just me, or are a lot of famous, “literary” authors annoyed by publicity? Maybe they’re shy? Consider the excerpt:
I asked [Doris Lessig] if she had heard the news and when she said no, I shared it with her.”Oh Christ!” she said in an exasperated tone that I certainly was not expecting. “[Speculation that I might win the prize] has been going on now for 30 years, one can’t get more excited than one gets.”….”Isn’t this a recognition of your life’s work?” I persisted.”Yes, it is. See, you’ve said it all for me,” the feisty and prolific author responded, turning to head indoors….Clearly, she was not going to make it easy. I managed to get her to turn around when she was half-way up the garden path by asking her if prizes meant anything to her, as obviously they were not the reason she wrote books.”Look, I have won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. I’m delighted to win them all, okay?”
