You can draw a lot of information from the way somebody gazes at you. I can tell you from a plainclothes photo if somebody is a fighter or not. I have been around them so much that I can peek in their eyes for a second and recognize them. It's starting to be the same for writers also.
There is no doubt that writing a novel is the most difficult thing I've ever tried to do. It's a problem of accuracy. For every accurate physical transplantation of an image in your mind on to paper, you will have to fail it ten times. Capturing the essence of the absolute is a frustrating business and I'm starting to see a trend in the eyes of successful writers. They all express in their own way, that silent longing, that never fulfilled thirst for accuracy. Just take a look at this photo, one of my favorite writer portraits of all time where Upton Sinclair expresses his psychotic despair about his profession:
This is the look of a man that silently says: "OH GODDAMIT. I TRIED MY WHOLE LIFE TO WRITE DOWN WHAT I WANTED TO SAY AND ALL I COULD COME UP WITH IS THAT CRAP? GOSH, I'M A SICKENING FAILURE".
You can also see it in this photo of Hemingway at the twilight of his life, the soulless stare of the man expresses more than words his famous quote: "There's nothing to writing. You just sit at a typewriter and bleed".
My new darling-writer Norman Mailer was also not exempt of the writerly gaze. Many beautiful photos have been taken of the quiet resignation in his eyes in front of the sisyphean task of the writer:
Even writers I don't like have the gaze. J.K Rowling and John Grisham for example:
There's no use hiding it...
...because it will always be with you...just ask Hunter:
But for some...as hard as I can search...there's no photos of the writerly gaze. There is only opportunism and teenage fantasies of being in Hollywood come true.
It's in the eyes. The words lie but the eyes tell the truth. Those who tried to bring you the most solid and accurate work have the weight of ten lifetimes in their gaze.
