How a writer sees his work

 I admire writers who know what they are doing. 

Here’s N. Scott Momaday: “I regard what I’m doing as an inquiry into the nature of mythmaking.”

He was writing The Ancient Child at the time.

At times, I have kept a journal while trying to do a bit of difficult writing. The next time I’m at it, I’m going to put a headline on a page that says, “I regard what I’m doing as …”

I’d like to know whether — and how — the view of your own work changes as you're doing it. In my experience, it does change.

• Source: The quote comes from an interview by Louis Owens. It was published in This Is About Vision: Interviews with Southwestern Writers, edited by John F. Crawford, William Balassi and Annie O. Eysturoy; Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990. And thanks to Alvin Sallee for sending me a copy.