Growing up, I was not told that there were women's areas of preoccupation or male ones.
From Rachel Kushner
My dad had a Vincent Black Shadow, which was a quite particular thing: it was the fastest cycle of its era... It sparked a world for me; when I was old enough, I got a motorcycle.
I don't have any outside view of myself, and if I did, I would probably be creatively inhibited. I just write in the way that I write.
I don't really know what the Great American Novel is. I like the idea that there could be one now, and I wouldn't object if someone thought it was mine, but I don't claim to have written that - I just wrote my book.
A historical event represents the best and the worst of that moment.
There were people in Cuba who truly had substantial things to gain from revolution. There were people who had things to lose in the revolution. I think they're all allowed to have their memories of what happened.
It's a cliche, and in a way it's a conservative idea about fiction, but I did learn the hard way that plot does need to dictate the story.
Even if it happened in real life - and oftentimes, especially if it happened in real life - it might not work in fiction.
Art is something special because it can come up with a way of approaching the truth that is a little to the side.
A novel is not a rant.
6 perspectives
5 perspectives
4 perspectives
3 perspectives
2 perspectives