WRITERS ASK ISSUE 72 EXCERPTS
I've been attracted over time to these little bubbles of history where we just don't know what went on in that space. And that's the space, where the historical record has a blank surface to it, into which we can interĀ¬pose fiction very easily. That's a vacuum that fiction goes into.—Peter Ho Davies
The amount of organization it takes, the amount of strategizing it takes to make a film, is much greater than what it takes to make a novel. If I want to film a scene in a slaughter-house, I have to go out to the Midwest and find a slaughterhouse and get permission to film that slaughterhouse, and then bring my camera and equipment and get insurance, clearance, and everything else. Now, of course, it's not easy to write a novel, either. But compared to making a film at that time in my life, I felt an enormous sense of liberation.—Ruth Ozeki
To be a successful writer, you have to really want it. And I mean really want it. I didn't know that I wanted it that much until I spent ten years as a journalist, reporter, and editor. All that time writing about true things never got me any closer to the truth.—Josh Rolnick
There are these living, deeply embedded constellations of types. I don't know if that's something to struggle against or just go for. But it is awkward. One story I wanted to set in the dust-bowl drought—but I looked at it and said, Wait a second, it's you people again.—Karen Russell
Being open to opportunities, and saying yes to those requests, is part of participating in the literary community, I think. My novel would not have existed without that community. It is a book written-on-demand. I am lucky to have been asked, but I remind myself that it was up to me to say yes. It is on the writer to turn those questions into an answer.—Matthew Salesses