E.L. Doctorow is receiving the 2013 Medal for Distinguished Contributors to American Letters at the National Book Awards in New York tonight.
The esteemed author chatted with GalleyCat about his early inspirations for writing and shared this advice. “Read,” he urged. “If you want to write books, read books. If you want to write for the movies, watch movies.”
“The best thing you can do as a writer is to read, because it helps you understand your place and how you relate to other writers,” he continued. “When I was a young writer, I read Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March and it was a revelation to me. The freedom in that book opened up my mind.”