SOURCE: "Farrell on His Writing," in Hearing Out James T. Farrell: Selected Lectures, The Smith, 1985, pp. 142-54.

In the following excerpt from a 1957 lecture at Miami University, Farrell discusses the major influences on his writing, his opinions on authorial intentions and aesthetics, and his perspective on writers of the 1920s and 1930s.

I feel a little bit shy talking about my own fiction. I have lectured so often that I have run out of subject matter, and I let Professor Branch more or less inveigle me into agreeing to speak about my writing. But I think that if I am very honest with you I probably will not serve my own interests, at least financially; because once I finish a book, I dislike or hate to read it. The only time that I will ever read a book of mine with real intensity is if I have to...