Quote of the Day (J. R. Moehringer, on ‘The Mystic Paradox of Ghostwriting’)

“Maybe the Germans have a term for it the particular facial expression of someone reading something about his life that’s even the tiniest bit wrong. Schaudergesicht? I saw that look on Andre [Agassi]'s face, and it made me want to lie down on the floor. But, unlike me, he didn't overreact. He knew that putting a first serve into the net is no big deal. He made countless fixes, and I made fixes to his fixes, and together we made ten thousand more, and in time we arrived at a draft that satisfied us both. The collaboration was so close, so synchronous, you'd have to call the eventual voice of the memoir a hybrid—though it's all Andre. That's the mystic paradox of ghostwriting: you're inherent and nowhere; vital and invisible. To borrow an image from William Gass, you’re the air in someone else’s trumpet.”—American journalist, memoirist, and novelist J. R. Moehringer, “Personal History: The Ghostwriter,” The New Yorker, May 15, 2023