I don’t enjoy writing. I used to have taped over my desk over there the Beckett quote, “Fail better.” So I have a sense of it always being, kind of, pushing the rock up the hill: “Is this any good?” and “No, it’s probably not.”
God's Favorite Writer: An interview with Mary Karr

"Legacy Characters"--heroes and villains that are "inspired" by pre- ( Read more... )

R. Crumb has given interviews saying his graphic novel version of Genesis is pretty close to a literal translation. He didn't satirize it, he just illustrated what actually happens. Of course, Christian spokespeople are furious. There is sex! It's violent! It's like they have never read the damn Bible before.
"It seems wholly inappropriate for ( Read more... )

Newsday talks to Lizzie Skurnick about her new book Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, which is also reviewed at the Los Angeles Times. I haven't read this yet, but I'm assuming it will, at long last, answer the titular question posed in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (My guess: God was screening his calls because ( Read more... )

Which writer do you drink like? I think I drink like...who's the writer who buys Olympia when it goes on sale at Plaid Pantry? You know, the broke one nobody's ever heard of? That guy. You might call it sad; I call it keeping it real. I also call it sad.-Michael Schaub
(I drink like Oscar Wilde, apparently.)

Jimmy Chen of HTMLGIANT presents a book ( Read more... )

I didn't really enjoy The Catcher in the Rye the first time I read it. I guess it just wasn't the right time. I loved it the second time though, and while not my favorite Salinger book (that would be Franny and Zooey) it's still special to me. The New York Times recently published an article (Get a Life, Holden Caulfield) tangentially related to ( Read more... )

I have developed a crush on Simon Schama. It's part of this whole "You know something I don't know. Let me sit on your lap while you talk about Turner's color choices" series of crushes I have. (Also in that series: "Let me sit on your lap, Brian Eno, while you talk about generative music.") But I like his The Power of Art, and while watching an ( Read more... )

Oh, Nigel Slater. How I love your cookbook prose, and yet how completely unable I am to make anything in your cookbooks. I will stick to your food writing, even if lines like this one make me wish I could follow your recipes: "You then knead it for 10 minutes, firmly but without any hatred."

If you would like to knead bread with hatred, by the way ( Read more... )