I always knew I was an otter!

[ellenkushner]

"Somebody said that writers are like otters. And otters are really hard to train. Dolphins are easy to train. They do a trick, you give them a fish, they do the trick again, you give them a fish. They will keep doing that trick until the end of time. Otters, if they do a trick and you give them a fish, the next time they'll do a better trick or a different trick because they'd already done that one. And writers tend to be otters. Most of us get pretty bored doing the same trick. We've done it, so let's do something different." - Neil Gaiman, in a conversation with Joss Whedon on the Time website - thanks to grahamsleight for the link!

Comments

[pnh.livejournal.com]

The "somebody" who said this was Teresa. Lois Bujold quoted the same bit in her recent LOCUS interview, but she actually attributed it.

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

I read Neil Gaiman's journal entry with the bit Ellen quoted, and in his entry I believe he listed it as LMB quoting Teresa.

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

it's here: http://www.powells.com/authors/gaiman.html

"I read a lovely interview yesterday in Locus with Lois McMaster Bujold in which she says that Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who is an editor at Tor, once told her that the big problem with authors is you can't train most of them. We don't train..."

btw, I had read the LMB interview prior to reading NG's interview, and I found it a lovely comparison ^_^

[winterbadger]

If there would be anything more entertaining than a conversation between Neil Gaiman and Joss Wheedon, it would be one among NG, JW, and EK. Crush heaven! :-)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Stick around, fella - I need more friends like you!

There's only one problem with that

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I've seen otters being trained. As long as you convince them that they won't get anything to eat unless they do the trick you want them to do, they'll do what you want. Get a writer really hungry, and the same thing will happen.

Re: There's only one problem with that

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

And this, too, is true.

Re: There's only one problem with that

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

that's awesome ^_^

and yes, conversations between NG and JW are not to be missed XD

Re: There's only one problem with that

[auroramama]

I guess I should have had otters instead of human kids. My daughter *still* will not drink from anything but a bottle. It's been more than a week since we took away the bottles and proferred various forms of sippy cups, straw cups, and just plain cups, and she's still refusing to touch any of them. We're feeding her grapes and yogurt and apples, and watching carefully for signs of dehydration; she's happy as a lark and totally unmoved.

I can resist anything but temptation

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, yeah, in France, it's an old tenet of cinematographic criticism: la théorie des otters.



Sorry. ^_______^

Patrick.

Re: I can resist anything but temptation

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Oh, Patrick, you should be horsewhipped!

Re: I can resist anything but temptation

[(Anonymous)]

Hm, tough crowd, tonight. :-(