The Self-Interview, an ongoing project
Q. You studied painting, but then switched to writing. What happened to the painting?
I like what Peter Plagens, art critic, painter, and writer, once said about writing versus painting. I'm paraphrasing, but to summarize, he said that to be a great painter, you need space, shelves, equipment. Writers need a pen and a legal pad.
Q. What are you working on now?
A novel about daughters and inheritance, female lineage and houses, dislocation and home.
Q. What are you currently reading?
This winter’s reading list includes Italo Calvino’s classic Invisible Cities, Orhan Pamuk’s
The Museum of Innocence, and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar’s A Mind at Peace. Read more about my current reading here.
Q. Any thoughts on those books?
You can find commentary on most of my reads over at LitStack, a literary news and reviews site.
Q. Any favorite authors?
I read most everything Colm Toibin writes—and admire his powers to move between fiction and nonfiction. In a work of fiction, I most admire clarity, precision, and voice—what Stuart Dybek calls "life on the page." So thinking of that, I'd also include William Trevor, Mavis Gallant, Fiona McFarlane, Tobias Wolff, Andrea Lee, and Edna O’Brien. In nonfiction, I most admire breadth and depth of thought, and a speaker who reveals both themselves and the world, especially Edward Said, Christopher Hitchens, Walter Kirn, Colm Toibin (again), and Elif Batuman.
Q. Your most often-used quote?
There are many, and they're usually from a film. My current favorite is from the 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, spoken by the character of Claude Lacombe, played by Francois Truffaut: "They belong here more than we." Actors Bob Balaban and Teri Garr give wonderful backstage accounts of the line in this documentary clip (at 00:9:12)
Q. Favorite writers?
Irish.
Q. Favorite food?
Spanish.
Q. Favorite films?
French.
Q. Favorite actors?
British.
Q. That photo on the home page, of you in a garden, where was that taken?
Lamb House, the home of Henry James, now a museum in Rye, Sussex, UK. I visited there in November 2014.
Check back for updates and continuing self-interview questions.