Eleanor Says, William Faulkner Knows Best

"You can call yourself anything you want -- an artist, a writer, a craftsman, but unless you have the words to back you up, you're nothing," Eleanor says. "You should pay close attention to Mr. Faulkner. It's not your talent that's at question, but your work ethic, and your diligence, and what you will do you get the job done."

Eleanor likes to spar with me. I'm used to it by now. I don't really feel like fighting today, though. Listening is fine enough.

"I need you," she says. "And I'll say whatever's necessary to get you take the biggest risk of all -- opening your heart, from the inside-out, so the truth can escape. Without me, you're less of a human being. You created me. You've allowed me to live inside you for 18 years. You need me, as much as I need you."

"Yes, Eleanor," I say. She's correct, of course.

"But I'm not like Frankenstein's monster," Eleanor says quickly. "I can bleed just like you. I can hurt just like you. I can be made whole -- just like you can be made whole again. And I can love, just as you can. All of the good things come with the truth. First we need to get past the pain."

*

"At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance--that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be--curiosity--to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got it or not."
-- William Faulkner