This file contains an unofficial transcript of a speech given by Isaac
Asimov.  This speech is available at the Vincent Voice Library,
Michigan State University via the following gopher link:

#
Type=0
Name=Isaac Asimov speaks at MSU in 1974
Path=0/Libraries/Collections/MSU.Branch.and.Special.Libraries/Vincent.Voice.Library/Samples.from.the.Vincent.Voice.Library/Isaac.Asimov.at.MSU.in.1974.(2:39)
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Words, punctuation marks and paragraph breaks in the transcript are
my own interpretations.

Note that this file may be removed without warning if objections are
raised against it by officials at the Vincent Voice Library or by the
Michigan State University.

Soh Kam Yung
sauron@ee.nus.sg

--------------Begin Transcript-------------

When I published my first book, I...I received a lot of questions, say
like, "Well, was it any good?" and you don't really know and you
suspect the worse and, "What do the reviews say?" and there weren't
any.

And, I very early figured there's only one way to handle this so I
quickly sat down and wrote a hundred and forty-five more books, and now
nobody asks the names, nobody asks if they are any good, nobody
asks...nobody asks anything!  They just say, "A hundred and forty-six
books, wow!" because...because, you know, if you stop to think of it,
what difference if they're good or not?  Have you tried writing a
hundred and forty-six bad books?

'Course then the other question is, "Well, how do you manage...how do
you manage to write all that?"  I'm constantly asked that.  "How do you
manage to write all those books?"  And the answer is very simple.  I
cut out the frills, like thinking.

You say you don't believe me, right?  But it's true, just the same.
You realize how many books don't get written because of thinking?  That
is, you write the first sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night?"

And that's fine and you keep on but you don't!  You commit the fatal
error of thinking and you say, "Not sufficiently dramatic."  You
write...you cross it out, you write, "A dark and stormy night, that's
what it was."

And then you think, you say, "No, it's too dramatic."  Perhaps you want
to open an air of uncertainty.  "Was the night dark and stormy?"

And then you think some more and you say, "No, no, I..I..I'm ruining
it, it's anti-climactic." and you say, "It was a stormy and dark
night!"  Well this goes on forever and you never write the book, see?
Now, I don't do that.  I start with the assumption that the way I say
it the first time is right.

As a result, I hate literary critics.  Who have been described to me as
resembling, you should excuse the expression, eunuchs in a harem.  They
can observe, study and analyze but they can't do it themselves.

*****

This is one of fifty thousand voices from the collection of the
Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University.

--------------End Transcript-------------


