Tracy Kidder talks to the Bygone Bureau about the danger of rereading your work: “Only two things can happen, and neither one is good. Either I’m reading and think how can I possibly have allowed that sentence to go to print, or I think, ‘Did I used to write that well?’” The quality of free writing: “Dreck.” Writing talent: “Anyways, talent… I’ve never understood what that really is.” Why he bought back the rights to one of his books so he would be the last person to ever read it: “I wrote it in a kind of swashbuckling first person, which I dislike.” And, the intelligence of writers: “Yeah. I don’t think that all really good writers are very smart in a sort of academic way. In fact, some seem downright stupid.” Don’t be insulted; I’m sure he wasn’t talking about you.
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