Fran Lebowitz on the Process of Great Writing

Fran Lebowitz on the Process of Great Writing | Collection in Focus

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25 күн бұрын

“The closest thing to a human being is a book. I know people think it’s a dog, but they’re wrong…When you look at manuscripts or letters and they’re written in the hand of the writer, you are closer to that writer, you’re closer to the person.” -Fran Lebowitz
For our Centennial, we asked some of our friends and collaborators to speak about what they love about the Morgan Library and Museum. Watch writer and iconic New Yorker Fran Lebowitz describe some of her favorite letters and manuscripts in our collection by her favorite writers. Lebowitz describes what makes Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain great writers to her.
Video by SandenWolff.

Пікірлер: 71

@matrix2297 9 күн бұрын

I met Fran this year. She's tiny, practically frail in person yet her presence is gargantuan. There were so many things I wanted to say but I only had about 30 seconds. My contribution to the encounter was so abysmal in relation to my expectations for the moment that it was comical. She was everything all at once. Uncharacteristically polite, on-brand (brazen), endearingly subtle; she sealed the deal with her signature wit. Panicking out of my struggle to resolve the painful (approx. 5 second) silence and fill it with ANYTHING, I said something I would ordinarily cringe at in hindsight. However Fran used my fell-flat-Hail-Mary as a springboard for a quip; an act I consider to be of compassion towards a socially anxious neurotic.

@popito8366 3 күн бұрын

What does springboard for a quip mean? Sorry English is not first language

@excellent136 22 күн бұрын

Fran Lebowitz. To the point. Concise. Best advocate for both the Morgan Library and New York. Thank you.

@natashapbooks 22 күн бұрын

If the title says "Fran Lebowitz" - it's a thousand percent chance I'll click on the video 😂😁

@spenserdavis788 21 күн бұрын

Was just thinking the same thing!

@micpoc4597 20 күн бұрын

Ditto

@brooklynnchick 20 күн бұрын

Let’s turn your post into the next “me too” moment ❤

@_NAED_ 20 күн бұрын

"There are two kinds of people in New York: the kind of people who have room for books and the kind of people who have books - and they are never the same people." -Fran Lebowitz

@user-xo3ty9jl8t 8 күн бұрын

How about the kind of people in New York that punch women in the face walking down the street?

@SmithMrCorona 8 күн бұрын

Truly intelligent people never need to boast about their intelligence. Fran, however, never misses a chance to mention how smart she is.

@user-xo3ty9jl8t 8 күн бұрын

Didn’t she file bankruptcy a few years back?

@alma9rina 20 күн бұрын

I need 70 hours of this not 5 minutes

@imattyyy 8 күн бұрын

I looked up all her interviews after I watched her Netflix show 😂 I'm so glad i got 5 more minutes

@franzwilde89 3 күн бұрын

Yes please!

@Ukedc259 17 күн бұрын

She’s pretty amazing. Like the library she’s sitting in.

@dorianhorton6805 21 күн бұрын

She br9ught a tear to my eye speaking (so briefly) about Oscar Wilde, I felt the exact same sentiment regarding her feelings about my namesake!

@franciscoleal6339 22 күн бұрын

love hearing small tidbits of Fran and Toni Morrisons friendship ❤

@nickbarcheck1019 22 күн бұрын

I adore Fran Lebowitz.

@annepokras551 22 күн бұрын

I enjoyed and appreciated this post of a particular Morgan Library trip. Not being an intellectual, I thought there was a contradiction - maybe purposeful, maybe irrelevant to you - that art should be useless, but then, great writers influence people whether they know it or not and we must read these particular great writers. And you referred to great writers as artists. I just found that interesting, and yes it influenced me in some way.

@williamneal9076 21 күн бұрын

Thank you, Fran!

@superdreamIndie 22 күн бұрын

I feel like these could be much longer

@jamesallison4875 22 күн бұрын

Fran, you look so natural there.

@focusedfreebird 22 күн бұрын

Amazing enlightenments! I could listen to Fran talk all day long.

@iestynovich 18 күн бұрын

Divine. Thank you.

@jamesalanstephensmith7930 20 күн бұрын

Will go, Fran!

@gy2gy246 21 күн бұрын

I think this was clipped from a longer video.

21 күн бұрын

Love this convo! Love you Fran! Thank you!

@Greenplanet949 21 күн бұрын

Thank you Fran. You are one of our treasures as well.

@ummon995 22 күн бұрын

Fran, although she’d probably cringe at what I’m going to write, is a national treasure.

@user-xo3ty9jl8t 21 күн бұрын

I think everybody is cringing at your remark.

@janefaceinthewind6260 17 күн бұрын

I'm not cringing.

@rh84394 23 күн бұрын

Fran is the perfect example of wit equaling intelligence.

@twerkinthecityhuh6340 20 күн бұрын

Fran has the same schtick over n over

@mistychenoweth9716 20 күн бұрын

Without gloves? Oh my God.

@late_privktorian_era 2 күн бұрын

Its fine

@user-ij7fg6iw3m 20 күн бұрын

She’s for sure one of my favorite people ❤

@superdreamIndie 21 күн бұрын

Two kinds of people in NYC, those who have books and those who have room for it.

@FPOAK 21 күн бұрын

I'm not sure which book has influenced me most in life but I'm positive which preface has

@Ephilates2024 22 күн бұрын

She’s also a New York treasure.

@user-xo3ty9jl8t 8 күн бұрын

She’s second only to Bernie Goetz.

@kamicastillo1451 23 күн бұрын

❤

@MarciaMatthews 21 күн бұрын

When I first saw her on a talk show, I thought she was Fran Lively-wits.

@pastielle18 20 күн бұрын

In Netflix who is main character in pretend its a City?

@guestguest7543 18 күн бұрын

Yes. She’s the focus of that program.

@joshfischer3360 19 күн бұрын

Anything with Fran is moist! Love her

@lvanni8564 23 күн бұрын

@ChrisPeck-niganma 19 күн бұрын

Fran Lebowitz wrote some stuff early in her career but I think in the last 40 or 50 years she has just given talks. Does she talk from an outline or just improvise?

@idklol4197 5 күн бұрын

what is she talking about "wit cannot be the product of effort" as she's looking down on the manuscript of Dorian Grey full of crossed out words and rewritten passages?

@claudiamanta1943 22 күн бұрын

4:27 😍 Heaven might be real, after all.

@UltimateKyuubiFox 18 күн бұрын

“Art is useless.” It’s also one of the few things we seek to preserve. Or destroy. This feels like a statement a writer might tell themself to get out of their own head. Patently nonsense, though. Art is literally the only reason we know most historical events and cultures, their values, their norms, their commonalities and foibles, their in groups and out groups, their gods and their devils, why they went to war or chose to die. It’s everything we’ve ever worked to make. That’s like saying life is useless. To its own end, yes. It’s made use OF, though, categorically. Perhaps that frightens some who spend their life in service of it. Seems like cowardice to me. Art will be made use of regardless of what you sought to create it for, even if you thought it was for nothing. If it gets banned, that tells you everything. You don’t ban a thing for being idle.

@lucysweeney8347 11 күн бұрын

Thank you for this excellent explanation.

@jasonmademusic 2 күн бұрын

You need only to read the rest of his letter to understand. Here: “My dear Sir Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility. If the contemplation of a work of art is followed by activity of any kind, the work is either of a very second-rate order, or the spectator has failed to realise the complete artistic impression. A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one. Truly yours, Oscar Wilde”

@kevinharrison3265 22 күн бұрын

Correct. Reading gets so little respect, here 6/19/2024. Wit? So much less.❤

@annalisavajda252 10 күн бұрын

I wonder why she says it's unusual Mark Twain being the most popular writer and also a great writer are not lots of best selling authors great that's why they sell so many copies?

@gy2gy246 21 күн бұрын

By art being "useless," she means it's not utilitarian, but purely hedonic.

@37Dionysos 19 күн бұрын

Mark Twain of course took the "voice" of "Huck Finn" from his shoe-shine moments talking with a young Black man who regaled him with stories and frank rapport. "If I'd a-knowed what a trouble it was to make a book, I warn't never a-tackled it, and I ain't a-goin' to no more."

@zemuuuuu 18 күн бұрын

I eat up whatever this woman says

@MarciaMatthews 21 күн бұрын

“Art is useless.”

@mdaria772 17 күн бұрын

misleading title!

@SmithMrCorona 18 күн бұрын

Fran Lebowitz is just another know-it-all boomer

@garyspence2128 17 күн бұрын

Fewer of us every day. You're gonna miss us when we're gone, and you youngsters won't have anyone around to tell you how to do or understand stuff...

@SmithMrCorona 16 күн бұрын

@@garyspence2128 I'm 50 years old. I've heard it all at this point. Most everything your generation has blabbered has been either bunk, or just re-hashing bits of pop culture from when you were in your teens and 20s. You bitched and moaned about your parents, and now your bitching and moaning about 'kids today'. Meanwhile, you took credit for things you didn't do, all while doing your best to make the world a more polluted, stinking place.

@tonymoon7741 16 күн бұрын

@@garyspence2128 I'm in my mid-40s. The entire public educational system has been destroyed by your generation. Nobody is learning s#it from you guys, unless it's how to serve jesus and corporate America, or about tired pop cutler from the 60s.

@tamerofhorses2200 10 күн бұрын

@@garyspence2128 I can reassure you, no one's going to miss your sorry, hedonistic, irresponsible asses. Bye bye.

@user-xo3ty9jl8t 8 күн бұрын

Yup look at the prices she sells her photographs for.