SOURCE: "Interview: George Garrett," in South Carolina Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, November, 1973, pp. 43-8.

In the following excerpt, Garrett discusses various aspects of his writing in general and his literary career in particular.

[Israel]: What do you think are the major problems faced by the beginning writer in our time?

[Garrett]: I'll dodge that one a little. All serious writers, with a few exceptions, are in the same boat. Each book is a beginning. Look at this. Wright Morris and Philip Roth, for example, are in the position of starting a new thing every time. The mechanics of the literary marketplace are such that a Wright Morris, who is probably our greatest living producing novelist, has done in effect a series of first novels. So all serious writers are beginners. Robert Penn Warren is an exception. And the problem is that it is sometimes more difficult for the old-timer...