Ebook The Paris Review Interviews I 16 Celebrated Interviews The Paris Review Philip Gourevitch Books

Product details Series The Paris Review Interviews (Book 1) Paperback 528 pages Publisher Picador; 1st edition (October 17, 2006) Language English ISBN-10 0312361750

The Paris Review Interviews I 16 Celebrated Interviews The Paris Review Philip Gourevitch Books Reviews

• If you've ever tried to write or even wondered about the creative writing
  process these interviews will have you riveted. I expected some ego and
  posturing and there is a bit but most of the authors are amazingly honest....even
  Hemingway as he picks and chooses what he wants to discuss. Most delicious is
  when these writers give their take on fellow writers. Here's an example from
  Joan Didion, "There's a passage by Christopher Isherwood in a book of his called
  `The Condor and the Crows', in which he describes arriving in Venezuela and
  being astonished to think that it had been down there every day of his life."
  Dorothy Parker says, "And I thought William Styron's `Lie Down in Darkness' an
  extraordinary thing. The start of it took your heart and flung it over there."
  
  Best of all are their observations
  
  "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, xxxx
  detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it."
  
  Ernest Hemingway
  
  "But novel writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be
  taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative-writing courses! The
  academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to
  write is to buy him a typewriter."
  
  James M. Cain
  
  "I had begun to lose patience with the conventions of writing. Descriptions
  went first; in both fiction and nonfiction, I just got impatient with those long
  paragraphs of description. By which I do not mean--obviously--the single detail
  that gives you the scene. I'm talking about description as a substitute for
  thinking."
  
  Joan Didion
• No piece of writing gets so close to the heart of a writer as Paris Review Interviews. They are the most sophisticated interviews one can read. The magazine has successfully employed knowledgeable professionals to conduct the interviews because the person interviewing a writer must know the writer's work very well. I have read the four series of the interviews and enjoyed all of them. These interviews will tell you about the art of writing because being too theoretical - perhaps it all starts to sound very fake when one writes theories on art.
• Was in great condition and received promptly. Looking forward to the read. I love books with multiple authors. I can be a different story every time I pick it up. Great for busy people.
• I bought these for my son who is a very good writer himself. Great vignettes of great writers.
• This book includes an interview of Ernest Hemingway conducted by George Plimpton. It appeared in The Paris Review in 1958. Since Hemingway was often reluctant to talk about his writing this is a fascinating read.
• Want to be transported directly to the homes, writing dens and cozy book rooms of some of the greatest authors of the 20th century? If the fact that Hemingway wrote standing up interests you, read this book.
• I've learned more about writing from this collection than I have from twenty textbooks on writing. A must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the craft of literature, whether as a writer or a reader.
• Love this book. Great collection on interviews with wonderful writers.