“And sometimes the epigraph becomes too heavy for the story and sometimes it seems too overwhelmingly portentous for the story. If it approaches sidewise, it’s more effective.”
Tag Archives: Novelists
Robert Stone
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Bay of Souls, Dog Soldiers, NYC Writers, Robert Birnbaum, Robert Stone
Leave a comment
Siri Hustvedt
“One of the great parts of being an American writer is that so much is going on here. It is exciting to the rest of the world, too. When I am in Europe people are quite excited about American fiction, and there is a sense that American writers are doing all kinds of different things—which they are.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Poets, Robert Birnbaum, Siri Hustvedt, What I Loved
Leave a comment
ZZ Packer
“I think people tend to racialize, and in some contexts that is necessary. In the context of just being human and falling in love and all of the things that human beings do, I don’t necessarily think it should erupt. It’s a horrible thing when it does because it means that the racists have won.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged California Writers, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Robert Birnbaum, ZZ Packer
Leave a comment
George Pelecanos
“Most American fiction is about people who win. And if it’s about race, it’s about how black people change white people.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Crime Writers, George Pelecanos, Robert Birnbaum, Soul Circus
Leave a comment
Tom Paine
“I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I wish it hadn’t been, but it was struggle to decide to do it. It never really was a question in some sense. I just wish I knew it wasn’t a question.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged New England Writers, Robert Birnbaum, The Pearl of Kuwait, Tom Paine, War
Leave a comment
David Liss
“I was a victim of the American cultural myth that genius requires no work. That if you have to work at something then you are not really gifted at it.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged David Liss, Robert Birnbaum, The Coffee Trader
Leave a comment
Sherman Alexie
American Indian filmmaker/writer talks with Robert Capriccioso
Posted in Author Interviews, Film Interviews Also tagged Authors, Film, Native American, Poets, Sherman Alexie, Smoke Signals, Ten Little Indians
Leave a comment
TC Boyle
Will Self
Richard Price
Colum McCann
“In America, as in most western countries, the writer is not really feared any more. Nobody fears your bite. So you have to work from a reckless inner need.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Colum McCann, Dancer, Irish Writers, Robert Birnbaum
Leave a comment
Sven Birkerts
Patricia Henley
Donna Tartt
“The reason that early success can be so disorienting to writers is that for one [thing] it leads them into overproduction.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Donna Tartt, Robert Birnbaum, The Little Friend, The Secret History
Leave a comment
Sandra Cisneros
“I didn’t even know how to make what I wanted. I just knew that I could see it in my mind’s eye for a flash of a second and then I was in the dark. So I was mainly in the dark, experimenting with this book.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Caramelo, Poets, Robert Birnbaum, Sandra Cisneros
Leave a comment
Alan Furst on Blood of Victory
Amy Bloom on Normal
Tim O’Brien
Mark Winegardner
“Serious readers—people who are really, really passionate about American fiction or fiction period—are disproportionately story readers. The people who are there for you for your story collections are your real readers.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Mark Winegardner, Robert Birnbaum, The Godfather
Leave a comment
Jill Bialosky
“I’ve always struggled with this idea of normalcy, of what is normal. Because I have never felt normal as a human being. So I tend to glamorize people who are more simplistic because I think their encounters in the world might be easier.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Editors, Jill Bialosky, Poets, Robert Birnbaum
Leave a comment
Daniel Mason
“It’s a nice idea that there are doctors and lawyers and investment bankers all walking around remembering The Odyssey. “
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Daniel Mason, Robert Birnbaum, The Piano Tuner
Leave a comment
Dorothy Allison
Nick Tosches
Ethan Hawke
“The great joy of acting is the collaboration. I get so much of that, I feel really drawn to the isolation and solitude of writing. It’s a real joy for me.”
Posted in Author Interviews, Film Interviews Also tagged Actors, Ash Wednesday, Ethan Hawke, Robert Birnbaum
1 Response
Ann Packer
Richard Russo on The Whore’s Child
“I think the Pulitzer often goes to writers who are writing about America in some larger way than in writing about particular Americans. And Empire Falls was some sort of snapshot of some part of America.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged Richard Russo, Robert Birnbaum, The Whore's Child
1 Response
Mark Costello
“Anything that stops and tries to make us feel human as opposed to making us feel like consumers or productive units, I think that’s important.”
Posted in Author Interviews Also tagged David Foster Wallace, Mark Costello, Robert Birnbaum
Leave a comment
