(b. 1935– )
U.S. memoirist, critic, and essayist
Vivian Gornick
The telephone conversation is, by its very nature, reactive, not reflective. Immediacy is its prime virtue. The immediacy delivers quick company, instant stimulation; the stimulation is cathartic; catharsis pushes back anxiety; into open space flows the kind of thought generated by electric return. The letter, written in absorbed solitude, is an act of faith: it assumes the presence of humanity: world and self are generated from within: loneliness is courted, not feared.
“Letters are Acts of Faith; Telephone Calls Are a Reflex,” The New York Times, July 31, 1994.