July 27th, 2011 / 5:19 pm
Craft Notes
Blake Butler
Craft Notes
Aldrich Ames on Writing
“I’m a traitor, but I don’t consider myself a traitor.”
“The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent.”
“You might as well ask why a middle-aged man with no criminal record might put a paper bag over his head and rob a bank. I acted out of personal desperation.”
“I could have stopped it after they paid me the $50,000. I wouldn’t even have had to go on to do more than I already had: just the double agents’ names that I gave.”
“The use of the polygraph has done little more than create confusion, ambiguity and mistakes.”
“The betrayal of trust carries a heavy taboo.”
Tags: aldrich ames
was trying to picture what kind of books this guy would write, i’m thinking tom clancy by way of those zodiac letters
orgera wonders if writing is like prostitution and this post makes me think if writing could be like spying/double-crossing, i like this thread of considering writing in light of other professions, very interesting
Going to publish his book of poems “Norwegian Would.”
I always kind of had the hots for him.
This site really hates the metaphor and loves the simile, some times.
This was awesome.
“The betrayal of trust carries a heavy taboo.”
That’s a cold fucking thing to say. I would be scared of someone if they looked me in the eye and said that. Especially if they were taller than me.
how do you pick these people, blake? you’ve made some really good, but really enigmatic choices recently. like squeaky fromme would have made a lot of sense if it had been right at her parole but it’s 2 years later, and this guy seems even harder to see what prompted it. in comparison it seems sort of easy to see how kristen iskandrian might have picked coco (sort of relevant to our times in a pop culture kind of way, or something). is there a book on this guy you’re reading? is it good?
Huh?
nevermind