In the late 1970s, Crisp began performing his one-man show in New York City, in which he would recount his personal autobiography in the first act, and in the second act, he would take questions from the audience. If you can catch this on VHS--it exists--or on CD, do. It's a delight. For example:
Q: What advice to you have for aspiring writers.
A: Never read. This is very important. if you read books in order to improve your writing style, you will find yourself trying to write literature, instead of saying what you really mean. It's very important not to get caught up trying to write better American prose. Don't do any such thing. Just try to think, Am I saying what I mean? Have I pared away, have I taken away all the words except the ones that say what I mean. And then your writing will be fine. You have the most wonderful writers in America, really great stylists, people like Damon Runyon, and there's no floweriness, no literary effect, in the work of Damon Runyon, he is as neat as he can possibly be. One of his stories begins 'Some parties who do not wish him well have put Maury in some quicklime.'
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I recently heard Annie Dillard talking about how it took her 10 years to write her recent novel, The Maytrees. She said it took that long to eliminate everything that wasn't essential to the telling of the story and pare it down to only what was necessary. Here's exactly what she said, "Your taste - changes as you age. And when I was young I liked it flashy. I liked it admirable. I wanted people to gasp all the time. And now, I'm old. There are no modifiers. It's clean as a whistle. And every time, almost every time - this isn't true throughout - I used a three-syllable word. I asked myself, is there a two-syllable word. If I used a two-syllable word, I asked myself, is there a one-syllable word. Of course, all the verbs are active. The idea was to eliminate every single unnecessary word."
--from her NPR interview with Scott Simon, July 28, 2007.
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