How do great writers do it? From James M Cains hard-nosed observation that writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. Its not all inspirational " to Joan Didions account of how she composes a book
- "I constantly retype my own sentences. Every day I go back to page one & just retype what I have. It gets me into a rhythm."
- " The Paris Review" has elicited some of the most revelatory & revealing thoughts from the literary masters of our age. For more than half a century the magazine has spoken with most of our leading novelists poets & playwrights & the interviews themselves have come to be recognised as classic works of literature an essential & definitive record of the writing life. Now Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch introduces an entirely original selection of sixteen of the most celebrated interviews. Often startling always engaging these encounters contain an immense scope of intelligence personality experience & wit from the likes of Elizabeth Bishop Ernest Hemingway Truman Capote Rebecca West & Billy Wilder. This is an indispensible book for all writers & readers."