Art & Creativity Quote by Richard Price

There’s a delicious self-skewering in Richard Price’s image of himself swooping “from book - and movie - land” on “angel wings” into the classroom. Price isn’t confessing to saintliness; he’s diagnosing a particular kind of authorly delusion: the visiting-writer fantasy that students are waiting for revelation, that craft arrives as charisma, that proximity to publishing and Hollywood confers moral authority. The phrase “this guy” undercuts the celestial entrance. He hears how ridiculous it sounds even as he admits the temptation to believe it.

The intent is partly disciplinary. Price is catching himself in the act of performing a role that the culture eagerly scripts for him: the novelist as emissary from the “real world” of art and industry, dropping wisdom like aphorisms. “Book - and movie - land” is pointedly hyphenated and kiddie-park-ish, reducing two intimidating institutions to a theme park. That’s the subtext: the teacher-as-celebrity is a construction, and Price is wary of how quickly it can crowd out the actual relationship with students, which should be reciprocal, ordinary, even messy.

Context matters here. Price has lived in both prestige literature and screenwriting, and he’s taught—so he’s seen how students can project glamour onto craft. The line recognizes the power imbalance: the classroom becomes a stage where the writer risks mistaking attention for transformation. “Descends” hints at hierarchy; “angel wings” hints at a savior complex. The joke is protective, but it’s also ethical: he’s reminding himself that good teaching isn’t an apparition. It’s showing up without the costume.