Can’t get enough of The Paris Review Interviews
November 12, 2009 | Comments Off
My appreciation of The Paris Review Interviews I-IV is up at NPR. An excerpt:
The advice on offer to aspiring writers is vast– and sometimes contradictory. In his introduction, Orhan Pamuk recalls discovering Faulkner’s interview while he was holed up with his first novel after dropping out of architectural school, and finding the answer to the question that seemed most urgent: “What sort of person should I now become?” An artist, in Faulkner’s view, is “completely immoral in that he will rob, beg, borrow or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done. … The writer’s only responsibility is to his art.” Toni Morrison would disagree. “Why should I get to steal from you? I don’t like that. What I really love is the process of invention.” These strongly held opposing views, bound between the same covers, give the volumes immense energy.
You can read the rest here. In related news, The Paris Review’s third editor, writer Philip Gourevitch, announced last week that he’ll be stepping down next spring to focus on his own writing.
For previous Paris Review interviews-related posts, see On running guided tours through your work; too far down: on writing and the emotions; the voluble Ms. Porter; literary quotes 5 and 7.