Anne Rice on Editing and Editors
Charlie Rose Interview
Aired October 23, 1997
EXCERPT Anne: Yeah. I usually come up with one fair copy at the end and that goes to the publisher. I edit and condense and cut and revise as I go along. I just work very intensely. And then, when I press that button and print it out, that's it. That's the only copy that really exists. And then off it goes.
Charlie: That's right.
Anne: And of course, I can keep pressing that button and keep pressing it--
Charlie: And you don't show it to anybody while you're writing these things?
Anne: Uh-uh. Uh-uh.
Charlie: It's just--
Anne: No. If I'm going to make a fool out of myself, I'm going to do it on my own. And I'm 56 and if I don't know how to write now--
Charlie: Yeah, I was going to say, if you don't know how-
Anne: It's time to--
Charlie: --to do it now, you might as well--
Anne: --you know, open a restaurant.
Charlie: Or something. You send it to the editor. Do they fool around with it much?
Anne: No, they don't fool around with it at all. I have a wonderful editor, Victoria Wilson, [sp?] and we came to an understanding a long time ago that she wouldn't touch the manuscript or change a word. And so---
Charlie: Now, wait a minute. Now, come on. See, there's something wrong here.
Anne: Well, no, no, no, no, no.
Charlie: There's something wrong here.
Anne: What do you mean? What are-- what are--
Charlie: You have an understanding with the editor she will not touch--
Anne: Absolutely.
Charlie: Why do you have an editor?
Anne: I have an editor to respond to the book, to--
Charlie: To tell you whether it's good or not?
Anne: --to publish the book, to produce the book, to fight for nine months through the house, whether it's Knopf or Random House or whatever it is--
Charlie: Yeah.
Anne: --to get the thing published, to choose that cover.
Charlie: She's like--
Anne: Look at that cover. Show that--
Charlie: She--
Anne: Victoria Wilson chose that. Now, that's nothing to sniff at.
Charlie: Oh, she did this?
Anne: That's Saint Sebastian. She didn't paint it, but she chose it.
Charlie: No, she chose it. That's what I mean.
Anne: Boy, you're being rough today. You're in a bad mood, aren't you!
Charlie: No, I'm not!
Anne: You're being a bit unusual.
Charlie: Now, what--
Anne: No. Look, editors don't have to change what you write. They really don't. Do you think-- do you think Pavarotti's voice teacher gets on the record with Pav? I mean, like it gets thin and the voice teacher jumps and goes-- [sings]
Charlie: No, here's what I think.
Anne: Uh-uh. Uh-uh.
Charlie: Every writer can be improved.
Anne: Oh, no! No. Not-- not-- I don't want to be improved, nor do I want to read and improved writer.
Charlie: Really?
Anne: When I read Hemingway, I want Hemingway. When I read Dickens, I want Dickens.
Charlie: Hemingway used to edit--
Anne: I don't want--
Charlie: --himself 32--
Anne: --some--
Charlie: Hemingway was one of the great editors of all time and he edited himself like crazy.
Anne: Hemingway, Anne Rice-- whatever.
Charlie: Anne Rice, yeah.
Anne: You know, sure.
Charlie: If Anne Rice-- if anybody's going to--
Anne: Look, let me ask you something--
Charlie: If anybody's going to touch your prose--
Anne: Where does this prejudice come from--
Charlie: Mine?
Anne: --that you need somebody to change your work? Because this surrounds the whole writing profession. Like, take-- let's take this violinist that inspired me, Leila Josefowicz.
Charlie: Yeah.
Anne: You know, the violinist I dedicate the book to.
Charlie: Right.
Anne: Do you think anybody jumps in and dubs in another instrument--
Charlie: No, I--
Anne: --with Leila?
Charlie: --don't. No, I don't.
Anne: That's what editing is. They want to change your words. You can't let them do it.
Charlie: I'll tell you what I do think. I do think-- I think probably she has someone that she can go to and listen to her play and make some--
Anne: Well, sure.
Charlie: --suggestions as to how she can--
Anne: Sure.
Charlie: --play it better.
Anne: Well, she's 19. I'm 56. No, I've got to do it all myself. It's just the way I am.
Charlie: Just drawing out of the side of your personality that we all know is there.
Anne: What about Enrico Caruso? I don't ever remember hearing about anybody telling him what to do.
Charlie: Oh, I bet you he--
Anne: You just stand there in the streets--
Charlie: --took suggestions--
Anne: --of Naples--
Charlie: Oh, come on!
Anne: Oh, what-- what are you-- why are you doing this to me!
Charlie: When did-- when did you get to be this prima donna that--
Anne: What-- what--
Charlie: When did you get to be--
Anne: Why are you doing this to me? Why did editing come up today? This is the 18th book. Don't you think you should have started this about-- about--
Charlie: No, we--
Anne: --book 12 or 13?
Charlie: I thought we'd talked enough about bisexuality in other interviews! All right.
Anne: Look at that cover again.
Charlie: I looked at that cover.
Anne: That's all the bisexuality you'll ever need.
EXCERPT (speaking of VIOLIN)
Anne: The woman in it is a person who's been through many deaths and griefs. She's a person who loves music and has no talent for music.
Charlie: Right.
Anne: Moi.
Charlie: Moi.
Anne: I would have needed a violin teacher forever if I had played the violin.
Charlie: Right.
Anne: Talk about editing.
Charlie: Did you know-- you knew-- I mean, you recognized that you had no--
Anne: Yeah, I was 15.
Charlie: --talent.
Anne: And I saw Isaac Stern at the Municipal Auditorium and went to heaven and the pawn shop and bought a violin.
Charlie: Yes?
Anne: And then I got the best teacher in New Orleans to teach me for almost nothing and she said, ``Honey''--
Charlie: Yeah.
Anne: --you know, "you can't hear quarter tones. You will never be a great violinist."
Charlie: Exactly.
Anne: She said, "You can join the orchestra by the time you finish college, but you will never be center stage."
Charlie: Yes?
Anne: And I wanted to be center stage and it was an agony and I gave it up.
Charlie: Right.
Anne: I would never have been anything but mediocre.
EXCERPT Anne: Would I write something that wasn't an agony? Would I waste your time.
Charlie: Exactly! What-- that ought to be paramount in your consideration.
Anne: It is, actually! It is.
Charlie: What--
Anne: It's not a bad exercise--
Charlie: No, it's exactly--
Anne: --to sit here and say, "What would Charlie Rose think of this?"
Charlie: Exactly right.
Anne: "What will we talk about"--
Charlie: Exactly right.
Anne: --"if I don't do a good job"--
Charlie: Exactly right.
Anne: --"on this book?"
Charlie: Exactly. You know?
Anne: And you still don't trust me? You want the editor to edit the book? I mean, you, of all people? Gee, it's disillusioning.
Charlie: I just never heard of an arrangement between an author and an editor which says, "You will not touch any word of my books."
Anne: It's not that uncommon.
Charlie: Is that right?
Anne: No. I mean, there are all kinds of writers. That's--
Charlie: Okay. I--
Anne: --the thing about being a writer. I mean--
Charlie: There are so many other things, I'm going to let that--
Anne: Let it go!
Charlie: --let it lie. I want to go back to the personal stuff. I want to learn something about--
Anne: Back to the personal stuff? Yeah.
* * * * * * * * * *
From October 23, 1997: Anne Rice on the Charlie Rose Show
Transcription by Lisa Rowe
