An interview with William T. Vollmann

this is how Vollmann responds to an interview with…Barnes & Noble. Who else but Vollmann could strike such a balanced tone between being pissy, subversive, terse and incredible insightful all at the same time.

In the fall of 2005, William T. Vollmann took some time out to tell us about some of his favorite books, authors, and interests.

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?
Maldoror by the Comte de Lautremont. Beautiful sentences combined with evil negativism.

What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
# Danilo Kis, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (A, G)
# William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (A, B, E)
# Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot (D, E, G)
# Lady Murasaki, The Tale of Gengi (A, B, C, D, E, F, G)
# Tadeusz Konwicki, A Dreambook of our Time (A, E, F)
# Montaigne, Complete Essays (D, E, F)
# Kawabata Yasunori, Snow County (C, D, E, G)
# Mishima Yukio, The Sea of Fertility (B, E, F)
# Manes Sperber, Like a Tear in the Ocean (F, D)
# Micheline Marco, The Daydreaming Boy (A, E, F, G)

Key:
A = Perfect Language
B = Construction of a coherent, alien (to me) world
C = Profound investigation of love
D = Richly complex pattern
E = Revelations about memory vs. loss
F = Political lessons
G = Erotic Beauty

What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?
Blowup, Solaris, Andrei Rubelev, In the Realm of the Senses — because all of these are slow, elegant, haunting, erotic.

What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you’re writing?
Scarlatti, Shostakovich, Ry Cooder, Paula Keyth.

If you had a book club, what would it be reading?
My books — to increase my sales.

What are your favorite kinds of books to give — and get — as gifts?
1) Library of America
2) Art books
3) Pornography
4) Alternative process photography manuals

Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you’re writing?
No. A pen, a notebook, a computer.

What are you working on now?
An essay about poor people, a history of the California-Mexico border, a book about Japanese Noh theatre, and a couple of novels.

Many writers are hardly “overnight success” stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
It took decades of hard work for me to get where I am today: in the gutter.

If you could choose one new writer to be “discovered,” who would it be?
Any dead writer will do. Why? To confer immortality.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Don’t write for money.

4 years ago  /  2 notes