Novelist on writing, isolation and why talent is insignificant

James Baldwin would have turned 92 today. The novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright was born August 2, 1924 and he died December 1, 1987.

He was known for his cutting, unequivocal writing about race relations in America.

In an interview with Jordan Elgrably, Baldwin looks back on his formidable career and shares what he has learned about writing, habits young writers must cultivate in order to excel at the craft and why talent is insignificant.

When he was asked what advice would he give to someone with literary promise. Baldwin produces the following, a blend of the pragmatic and the aspirational:

1. Write

"Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say. If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real."

2. Talent is nothing without discipline and endurance:

"Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance."

3. Critics should not define you:

"It is never entirely true that you don’t give a shit what others say about you, but you must throw it out of your mind."

4. On solitude:

"I had to go through a time of isolation in order to come to terms with who and what I was, as distinguished from all the things I’d been told I was. Right around 1950 I remember feeling that I’d come through something, shed a dying skin and was naked again. I wasn’t, perhaps, but I certainly felt more at ease with myself. And then I was able to write."

Read the full interview in The Paris Review

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