CECIL BROWN
287
Williams:
Well they got to more or less because there are plenty of
things that are eccentric about me: I'm wall-eyed, I'm this, that and
the other.
Int.:
Do you ever feel that your experience can never be ordinary? That
whenever you have an ordinary experience, your great imaginative
gift immediately turns it into something more fantastic?
Williams:
I think I have a fairly clear conception of the world I live in.
Int.:
Are you at all bitter about the way society treats its artists in
America or the way society treats itself?
Williams:
I don't waste time on that, it doesn't do me any good-that
business doesn't help me, it only depresses me-little punks in this
world. I hurt when I'm depressed. I am aware of it, yes, you know;
I'm gonna do what I can to correct it-but what can I do, you know.
Int.:
Did you think at any point in your life you encouraged rumors
about yourself?
Williams:
Oh sometimes you get the "Oh fuck it all" attitude. I knew
an old lady who wore dentures and she was a lady poet, a rather
eccentric sweet old thing, and she climbed up the hill
to
write her
poems. The Muse didn't visit her, and she said "oh dash it all" and
threw everything away.... She didn't realize that she threw her
dentures away too ha, ha, hal She went to a party several days later
and somebody said tactfully, "why Louise, why I notice you've had
some extractions lately." he he hel Poor thing had thrown her
dentures away and hadn't realized it. He he he he! You can find
anything in art that is equally fantastic. You see, art is compressed
and there has to be exaggeration in art form to catch the outrageous–
ness of reality, because art has less time in which to capture it, you
see; you have a whole, you have a wide stretch of time for the
outrageousness to exist in life. But in an art form, no, it has to be
within a compressed pace of time-of course, some people write
realistic short stories and so they don't try to capture the outrageous–
ness of reality. Sometimes the truth is more accessible when you
ignore realism, because when you see things in a somewhat exagger–
ated form you capture more of the true essence of life. The exaggera–
tion gets closer to the essence. This essence of life is really very
grotesque and gothic. To get to it you've got to do what may strike
some people as distortion.
Int.:
What is the value in realistic short stories?
Williams:
I've never discovered it except in the case of a few great
writers, like Stephen Crane and Hemingway.
Int.:
Even Hemingway had exaggeration.
