The Paris Review cover image

S3E5 | A Strange Way to Live (with Phoebe Bridgers, Connor Ratliff, Joan Didion, Natalie-Scenters Zapico, Bud Smith, Jericho Brown, Jessica Hecht, Avery Trufelman)

The Paris Review

CHAPTER

Is Writing a Hostile Act?

The mostim is that i need an hour alone before dinner with a drink to go over what i've done that day. I can't do it in the late afternoon because i'm too close to it. Also, the drink helps. It removes me from the pages. So i spend this hour taking things out and putting other things in. Another thing i need to do when i'm near the end of the book is sleep in the same room with somehow the book doesn't leave you when you're asleep, right next to it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream.

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