How Do You Write for a Long Time?

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There are specific works of fiction that were influential on this book for you or that you found yourself talking a lot to people about. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns is such an amazing description of how sociological factors affect people's mental health. Naomi moving to Minnesota was just this deeply alienating experience and I think I had better language to even ask questions about like what it feels like to move to a new place.

Rachel Aviv is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her new book is Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us.

“I used to feel that if I knew everything, that was a good sign. And I've become more aware that if you know everything you want to argue, that's not such a good sign…. Do I have a genuine question? Is there something I’m trying to figure out? Then the story is worth telling. But if I don’t really have a question or if my question is already answered, then maybe that should give you pause.”

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