Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Books Talking to Novelist Nathan Englander About Being "Isaac Bashevis Singer on Crack"
Posted by Henry Stewart on Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:55 AM
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What would you characterize as an ideal interaction with a reader?One thing I find truly meaningful is when people who’ve experienced a world I’ve only imagined engage with the fiction—when for them it reads as it should. That may be a hazy or clipped way of explaining it, but it has provided some of the most meaningful moments with readers that I could ever hope for.
Have you ever written anything that you'd like to take back?
I talk about this with younger writers when they ask, or yell at my students about it on a regular basis: Do not put anything out into the world until you are ready to stand by it until your dying day. Write anything and everything that you want—and need—to write, rewrite until there is no more rewriting to be done, but there is no rush to publish. Publishing is a separate matter. When you put a book out into the world, it better be finished. It better be the book you want to have written.
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