Each book is a new book

Michael Wood: Has writing fiction become easier for you over the years?

Paul Auster: No, I don’t think so. Each book is a new book. I’ve never written it before and I have to teach myself how to write it as I go along. The fact that I’ve written books in the past seems to play no part in it. I always feel like a beginner and I’m continually running into the same difficulties, the same blocks, the same despairs. You make so many mistakes as a writer, cross out so many bad sentences and ideas, discard so many worthless pages, that finally what you learn is how stupid you are. It’s a humbling occupation.

—interview

On writing as a physical experience

“[K]eyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page. Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.”

—Paul Auster (x)

Ah, yes, the joke

“Interestingly enough, the literary model I had in mind when I wrote those pieces [a collection of nonfiction stories called The Red Notebook] was the joke. The joke is the purest, most essential form of storytelling. Every word has to count.”

—Paul Auster (x)

Short story: “Henry”

“Henry,” by Phyllis Bottome

First appeared in the collection Strange Fruit (1928); read well by Simon Meddings for PseudoPod 917, April 26th, 2024

A few thousand words?

Terrific little tragedy.

Flash fiction story: “Imagine Yourself Happy”

“Imagine Yourself Happy,” by Premee Mohamed

In Small Wonders Magazine, Issue 5, November 2023 (read online)

897 words

Gentle and wise. Imminent death brought out the best in this character—though I am positive it doesn’t do that to everyone. Great title (with its echo of Camus), lot of great lines. “Isn’t that interesting?”

Short story: “Campfire Colors”

“Campfire Colors,” by No One of Consequence

Read well by someone or other in the Creepy episode “Creepaway Camp 2024: Day 4,” April 14th, 2024

A few thousand words?

Interesting story. This style of writing adapts to audio very nicely.

Short story: “The Haunting of the Wilsons by Me and That Bitch Todd”

“The Haunting of the Wilsons by Me and That Bitch Todd,” by Sydney Emerson

In McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern 71: The Monstrous and the Terrible (guest-edited by Brian Evenson, purchase here), October 17th, 2023

A few thousand words?

At first glance this is a light, funny story, packed with snark and absurdity. But man, being trapped for seemingly eternity in a meaningless job with someone you hate? True horror.

An exact ratio!?!

“[P]oetry and experience should have an exact ratio. Astonishing experience doesn’t happen very often.”

—William Meredith (x)

Short story: “Heavy Rain”

“Heavy Rain,” by TJ Price

In the anthology Howls from the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror (HOWL Society Press, 2023); read well by Scott Campbell for PseudoPod 915, April 12th, 2024

3,403 words

A great line, and something in which many of us will recognize our own relationships: “You hated yourself more than I could love you.”

On what we must do (and please excuse my failure to cite the translators)

“We must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

—Albert Camus

“‘We must cultivate our garden.'”

—Voltaire

(Edited to add:)

“We must love one another and die.”

—W. H. Auden