Who are your favorite writers?
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Victor Hugo, Blaise Pascal, and Louis L’Amour. It is difficult for me to cite favorite works because each work that I’ve read from each writer has taught me many things. For F. Scott, there is THE GREAT GATSBY and his unfinished THE LAST TYCOON; for Hugo, LES MISÉRABLES and poems from LES CONTEMPLATIONS; for Pascal, LES PENSÉES; and for Louis L’Amour, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, HONDO, and RADIGAN.
How do these writers influence your work?
From F. Scott, his lyric imagery was the most influential. Also, the way in which he weaves the story with a very natural, direct but poetic voice.
From the great Victor Hugo, I learned the most, probably because he was the powerhouse of poetry and prose. Specifically, I learned how to move the point of view from the universal to the particular, and vice versa. There were also the architectural details through which Hugo could exhaust the reader but probably not himself.
Blaise taught me how to organize my thoughts in a concise, logical, linear order and how to express prose sparingly but powerfully. The artistry of the man has been overshadowed by the truth of his opinions. For Pascal, beauty and truth are synonymous.
Mr. L’Amour instructed me in the fine craft of narration. His narrative voice is pure, his prose condensed and moving.
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