A sleep trance, a dream dance, a shared romance, synchronicity

Emily Gordon: New Yorker Festival wrapup quiz! Match the statement with the speaker:

1. “I had a therapist once who said, ‘When are you going to finish that book? I need something to read.’ It helped a lot. I’ve read so many great books, and I’d like to repay that favor.”

2. “I am taken by the boldness of any performer who makes a personal decision, who can take an idea and make it happen. I don’t want to name-drop, but most of my friends are film directors, and I was having dinner with some of them in Paris. Roman Polanski said, ‘I want to do Oliver Twist.’ ‘Why?’ I said. ‘It was a pretty good musical.’ He said, ‘You don’t understand. My son Elvis—he has to see something.’ Take your craft and make it happen.”

3. “[That] is the thing I’ve worked hardest on and worked on the most. I was a lazy person until I had to do [it]. But when the chance is really there, I go for it. And I was rewarded. It was a revelation at 36—the more you try the more you get out. Amazing!”

4. “Classics have the advantage of being models and also being…beyond the fads, and the few that really move you it is important to take into your deepest self.”

5. “TV is not the answer, for God’s sake…. The government should take an aggressive stand and invest in art in general. When a little kid drops a Coke bottle under his feet in the subway, it’s not bad behavior but a lack of understanding of the art of living.”

6. “Work every day, find good work habits. Read who you like and figure out why you like it. They don’t owe you something, you owe them something.”

7. “I don’t aim for perfection. I have a fan mentality.”

8. “You compete with the dead as well as the living—it’s a big crowd you’re competing with!”

9. “We figure that among New Yorker cartoonist bluegrass bands, we’re in the top five.”

10. “I was working at a job where a lot of people were talking about writing, but not writing. I didn’t want to just talk and not write.”

11. “My grandmother learned this song from a Virginia state senator when she was nine years old.”

12. “I used to never read anything by anyone younger than me. Now I don’t read anything by people older than me! The younger ones have much more to say to me.”

13. “Any new work creates polemics and discussion—and that’s very healthy.”

14. “I have my students read Lorrie’s stories…. Teaching makes you go out and be social and not have it be all about you.”

15. “Recently I found myself panning El Greco. El Greco didn’t come all this way to be panned by an American!”

16. “I got somethin’, but it’s not the banjo.”

17. “Are there any ex-English majors here? Tell me, where is the big money they promised?”

A. John Updike
B. Frank Gannon
C. Zadie Smith
D. Steve Martin
E. Chang-Rae Lee
F. Mikhail Baryshnikov
G. Lorrie Moore
H. Jonathan Franzen
I. Matt Diffee
J. Tony Ellis
K. Ricky Gervais

Answers:
1: H
2, 5, 13: F
3: K
4, 6, 8, 15: A
7: C
9: I
10, 14: E
11: J
12: G
16: D
17: B

26 September 2005 | uncategorized |