Interviews

“I did a lot of research about Monet, in the course of writing this book, and he was known in his time for having many paintings in progress simultaneously, working outdoors on a landscape canvas with a bunch of partially…

“For me, a central question of the novel as well is language and the failure of language. I think many of these people are imprisoned by language and their inability to say what they want to say or remember what…

“It is very hard to dramatize something tiny onstage. But on the page something microscopic can contain magnitudes of consequence—not to mention time. The playwright’s basic unit is time. You’ll have two hours of the audience’s time. You are forcing…

“I think fiction feels safer. If I’m writing a short story, I don’t usually call up my friend and say, “Hey, I’m thinking about putting this line you said in there.” There was initially a scene from my life that…

“ I don’t like reading books where you can feel the writer fiddling with you and admiring themselves as they manipulate the words on the page. I don’t love a self-congratulatory writer—you can sniff it on the page immediately—more than…

“I love writing humor; it’s what gets me to my desk. The humor comes pretty naturally, which is part practice and part good luck. It’s baked into my worldview. Whenever I’m starting something new, I’ll have this moment of terror…

My memoir chronicles our adversities as well as our achievements. She wanted me to attend a university and become a teacher. She cried at every one of my graduations and achievements. I know now life is fragile and fleeting, and…

“I’m fascinated by poetry that reaches complex, new ideas through the most ordinary words. It reminds us that fire, that hypnotic, powerful force, is nothing more than a spark born from two simple pieces of wood. I suppose I long…

“​​Countries with a history born of colonialism understand intimately that the perversion of the power dynamics in the relationships we see in today’s tourist economy isn’t anything new. It’s just a remix of the same old dynamic. As someone who…

“All of us are searching for answers for something in our lives. I like when someone is coming at the subject from a place of not knowing and I am there with them. I can’t think of anything more intimate…

I just think that the way that we consume language on the internet has to be super utilitarian because our attention spans are being ripped to shreds at any given time. For me, prose and writing a book that I…

It can be easy, when you’re young and you don’t know very much, to be a critic out of jealousy. To say, “well, that’s shit, and that’s shit.” To come directly out of being a fan, and then decide to…