Tristan Foster interviews South African writer Ivan Vladislavić on the importance of art in his writing, having a large body of work, and the appeal (or lack of appeal) of cities:

Our love for cities is always unrequited. Johannesburg is not an easy place to live: I’m deeply attached to it, and endlessly intrigued by its vagaries, but I don’t always enjoy it. The fact that I’m a writer, and driven to make something of what happens to me, good and bad, is an advantage. The telephone dixie was an excellent invention, by the way, but I didn’t sell even one. I was a useless saleman.