| |||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
by The Paris Review
|
by The Paris Review
|
by Marie Arana
|
by The Paris Review
|
Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from The New York Times by The New York Times |
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Each of the 23 interviews in this exquisite collection-diplomatically arranged in interviewee alphabetical order-begins with a pithy introduction by the interviewer, noting something anecdotal of the subject's life and work, suggesting thematic commitments that drew interviewer to interviewee and noting the location as well as the interview method employed, from "via the U.S. postal system-I would send him questions on separate pieces of paper, and he would type the answers and send them back," to "The following conversation took place on an old Toshiba calculator." The project's formal structure ends there; what follows is a book in which writers chat uninhibited and present the "writing life" with deep, measured enthusiasm ("Here I am starting a new book," says John Banville. "This is the absolute best stage of it... you might actually get it right this time"), self-deprecating absurdity ("Gaining in gravitas?" Adam Thirlwell asks Tom Stoppard on the subject of weight-gain), or unexpected poignancy (as when Jamaica Kincaid gushes "oh gosh" when asked about her aspirations). The volume is at its strongest when fledgling literati interrogate well-established literary giants-like Nell Freudenberger's sisterly conversation with Grace Paley, or Dave Eggers's respectfully warm tête-à-tête with Joan Didion-and when strong-voiced writers with distinctly different projects (Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, or ZZ Packer and Edward P. Jones) pair off to explore what drives their work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
Believer Books has collected, in alphabetical order, twenty-three conversations and correspondences between much admired writers and the writers they admire. The interviews include favorites gleaned from the pages of the Believer magazine along with previously unpublished conversations. The book is rife with astonishing insights and profound quips. To wit: George Saunders: "I see writing as part of an ongoing attempt to really, viscerally, believe that everything matters, suffering is real, and death is imminent." Ian McEwan: "The dream, surely, that we all have, is to write this beautiful paragraph that actually is describing something but at the same time in another voice is writing a commentary on its own creation, without having to be a story about a writer." Jamaica Kincaid: "All of these declarations of what writing ought to be, which I had myself--though, thank god I had never committed them to paper--I think are nonsense. You write what you write, and then either it holds up or it doesn't hold up. There are no rules or particular sensibilities. I don't believe in that at all anymore." Janet Malcolm: "The narrator of my nonfiction pieces is not the same person I am--she is a lot more articulate and thinks of much cleverer things to say than I usually do."
Paul Auster: "In my own case, I certainly don't walk into my room and sit down at my desk feeling like a boxer ready to go ten rounds with Joe Louis. I tiptoe in. I procrastinate. I delay. I come in sideways, kind of sliding through the door. I don't burst into the saloon with my six-shooter ready. If I did, I'd probably shoot myself in the foot." Tobias Wolff: "Each time out should be a swing for the fences. Don't do base-running drills. You can do those on your own time."
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
"I AM IN EXILE, BUT NOT ENTIRELY IN EXILE. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
echo maker, malevolent intervention Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, John Ames, Old School, San Francisco, Henry James, Graham Greene, Cross Old Man, Gerald Weber, Freddie Montgomery, The Keep, National Book Award, John Coltrane, Annie Proulx, George Bush, The Echo Maker, Axel Vander, The Child, The Great Fire, Noboru Wataya, Martin Amis, African American, George Saunders, Los Angeles, World War Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
"I AM IN EXILE, BUT NOT ENTIRELY IN EXILE. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
echo maker, malevolent intervention Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, John Ames, Old School, San Francisco, Henry James, Graham Greene, Cross Old Man, Gerald Weber, Freddie Montgomery, The Keep, National Book Award, John Coltrane, Annie Proulx, George Bush, The Echo Maker, Axel Vander, The Child, The Great Fire, Noboru Wataya, Martin Amis, African American, George Saunders, Los Angeles, World War Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
61% buy the item featured on this page: The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers $14.04 |
 |
12% buy The Paris Review Interviews, II $6.40 |
 |
11% buy The Paris Review Interviews, I $10.88 |
 |
8% buy Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from The New York Times $10.20 |
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
 |
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
Look for Similar Items by Category
Look for Similar Items by Subject
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. |
