A Pained Intuition and a Palpable Longing: Katie Ford on Theology, Poetry, and the Unknowable

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What prayer and poetry have in common is that they both must be revised. I think people need to witness what they are actually saying in their prayers.
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Words, Ever Unreliable: The Millions Interviews Zoje Stage

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To a certain degree, Hanna knows she'll lose her identity if she begins speaking, and that frightens her. Who will she become?
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You Don’t Have Privacy, so Instead You Have Secrecy: The Millions Interviews D. Wystan Owen

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I think the reason I like books is because you get to enter into this world where you’re alone. You enter this world where you don’t even exist.
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Making Things Up: The Millions Interviews Elliot Reed

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This goes back to my brief tenure as the head writer of the blog “How to Start Your Own Handyman Business.” I am not a handyman. Never have been.
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An Element of Perversity: The Millions Interviews Katharine Kilalea

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I do miss the modernist project’s ambition to tackle death, love, the meaning of life. I’m still anxious about the meaning of life!
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Bina Shah and Joseph Olshan: An Author/Editor Pair on Inspiration, Switching Genre, and the Edit Process

How I shape my story, mold it, form it and direct it is my craft, but it's already there on some plane that I'm accessing as I write.

Jordy Rosenberg and Andrea Lawlor on Exploding Narrative Structure and Theory Posturing

I wanted always to be around other queers and other seekers, and the world of queer theory was a world of queer seekers.

Lucy Tan and Crystal Hana Kim Discuss Societal Roles, War, Secrets, and the Complications of Love

Both novels explore the impact of political history, of money and power, and of the damaging effects of gender roles.

Writing Something Irresponsible: The Millions Interviews Andrew Martin

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I wanted to write something irresponsible, or at least not worry about whether or not I was following the rules of proper conduct and proper novel writing.
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The Stories That Change Us Forever: The Millions Interviews Julie Buntin

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I was always asking myself what felt true. What feels true for your character isn’t always going to be the thing you want to write.
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Preoccupations with Witchiness: A Review of ‘Dead Girls’ and Interview with Author Alice Bolin

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Bolin has made it clear, both in press and in the introduction: This is not just a book of essays about dead girls in pop culture.
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The Mind Is an Impediment: The Millions Interviews Anelise Chen

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Arguably, a journal has no form—just organic documentation—but actually, you do see these ebbs and flows. There are these natural waves in every life.
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Rich, Collective Life: Naima Coster on ‘Halsey Street,’ Gentrification, and Writing

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I’m enjoying some attention. But for a long time that’s not something that I had. I think writers need to hear “keep going” from other people now and again.
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I Make What I Want: The Millions Interviews Nell Painter

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Art is about taste. There are no objective criteria, and that was one of the hardest things, because a lot of people were pretending that there were.
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Following the Aftermath: The Millions Interviews Tom McAllister

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It seems crazy to me that we just have to accept that the bullets will be there and need to find some way to help children dodge them better.
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It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game: The Millions Interviews Rebecca Makkai

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It's a novel about the ways the world comes at you no matter who you are or what you do.
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Made a Little Grotesque by Fiction: The Millions Interviews Lauren Groff

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Each project needs to, in some ways, obliterate the previous project, so I've been waiting for the firepower to arrive.
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‘Bad Stories’: The Millions Interviews Steve Almond

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The ache is how we know we’re alive. And when we’re telling good stories, the ache is how you know you’re not alone in this life.
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