Nicholson Baker
"Part of the reason a worthless book is worth retaining is that its worthlessness means something."
Interviews
Interviews with interesting people. Subscribe: RSS
Anthony Giardina
"I think there is something about the fixedness of male sexuality that is comforting to us. Or the alleged fixedness."
Susan Orlean
"I like the mental puzzle involved with dealing with a real situation rather than one that you can just arbitrarily choose to change. And frankly I like the social mission of writing non-fiction."
Howard Zinn
"It's always amazing to me how people live in a city and don't know the history of that city. I've been to Lawrence, Massachusetts, and I would bring up the textile strike of 1912 and nobody would know about it."
Alan Furst
"I am not in the business of making people feel bad. I'm in the business of telling people how it might possibly turn out, that in this situation love conquers all."
Julian Barnes, Etc.
"When we talk about a novel provoking emotions, we tend to think of the emotions that have to do with our own amatory life. I think that books can be emotionally exciting in many different ways."
Adam Gopnik
"In Paris we had — not just we had, but one has — a genuinely beautiful existence. That is to say, all of the little details of life — or nearly all — are pleasing."
Manil Suri
"There's a big emphasis in this country to look at your roots and have an identity. Which is good but not the way I feel. I just take it for granted."
Alan Lightman
"So that's the fine balance of a fiction writer...to be able to give your characters enough freedom to surprise you and yet still maintain some kind of artistic control. You are constantly balancing between those two opposing forces."
Amy Bloom
"I feel it's an incredibly high standard that you have to hold the short story to because there is no room for that really common, perfectly understandable difficulty."