The Paris Review Interviews: v. 1 by Philip Gourevitch
Interviews with writers such as Truman Capote, T.S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges, Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut and many many more.
As this is not a novel it is perhaps not necessary to start at the beginning and read through to the end, but I did so nevertheless, utterly enthralled by the intimate view of the writing process. What most writers have in common: they are usually readers too, they seem often to know the beginning of a story and the end, and have to wrestle with the middle, and most of them seem to need a routine, structure and discipline.
However what is remarkable is the individuality of the process and attitude to what they are doing, some taking it so so seriously, others astonished at being taken seriously. I found the section on Robert Gottlieb particularly informative for the insight it gives you into the publishing business, and I think my very favourite writer was Kurt Vonnegut: he was so down to earth, so not full of s**t, so moving and so so funny: not his favourite jokes, which were execrable, but his idea to reverse the lack of dependable readers: “I propose that every person out of work be required to submit a book report before he or she gets his or her welfare check.” That made me hoot with laughter!
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