Here you can listen in on William Faulkner’s sessions with audiences at the University of Virginia in 1957 and 1958, during his two terms as UVA’s first Writer-in-Residence.
Unidentified participant: Apropos of the last question asked, so far as I understood it, and apropos of the first question asked, I wonder if you would care to comment a little more broadly upon the effect of formal education on the creative writer?
William Faulkner: I hope I’m not going to step on any toes now. [audience laughter] I don’t believe that formal education ever made a writer or ever hurt him. I think a writer is omnivorous. He will use [someday] any experience. That formal education has taught him one very valuable quality, which is mental discipline. He could teach himself mental discipline. He wouldn’t have to have formal education for that. Formal education simply simplifies his field of research. That he is offered by experts, in—in the simplest way, knowledge, which he probably very likely will need and will use. Without formal education he would have to dig it out himself. But I don’t think that formal education could take a man and turn him into a writer.
Faulkner on Formal Education
Faulkner at Virginia: An Audio Archive
Hear Faulkner talk about the value of Formal Education on the creative Writer:
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Unidentified participant: Mr. Faulkner—
William Faulkner: Yes, sir.
Unidentified participant: Apropos of the last question asked, so far as I understood it, and apropos of the first question asked, I wonder if you would care to comment a little more broadly upon the effect of formal education on the creative writer?
William Faulkner: I hope I’m not going to step on any toes now. [audience laughter] I don’t believe that formal education ever made a writer or ever hurt him. I think a writer is omnivorous. He will use [someday] any experience. That formal education has taught him one very valuable quality, which is mental discipline. He could teach himself mental discipline. He wouldn’t have to have formal education for that. Formal education simply simplifies his field of research. That he is offered by experts, in—in the simplest way, knowledge, which he probably very likely will need and will use. Without formal education he would have to dig it out himself. But I don’t think that formal education could take a man and turn him into a writer.
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