WRITERS ASK  ISSUE 85 EXCERPTS

Unfiltered, unfettered, children have a way of making unexpected connections and drawing painfully honest conclusions. They approach the world with truly open eyes, ready to see the unexpected. —Sophie Chen Keller

One of the reasons that it took me so long to write the novel is that I needed to invent the point of view of unreliable omniscience and figure out how to use it in the novel. I don't doubt that someone else invited it long ago, but I couldn't find useful models, and I had to just make it up. —Robert Boswell, interviewed by Scott Andrew

I like to inhabit another person's mind when I'm reading, sit in their mind and look at the world the way they look at it. That's why I read. I read in order to leave my own mind and understand things through the minds of others. —Valeria Luiselli, interviewed by David Naimon

The biggest truth I've learned as a writer is that you've got to play to your strengths. So if you would like to be a subtle minimalist who does everything with physical details but you suck at it, you're out of luck. —George Saunders, interviewed by David Naimon

I wish I had the skillset as a writer where I could, in an analytical way, choose and match the right point of view to the subject, but it ends up being whatever I can write forward in, whatever feels comfortable. —Karen Russell, interviewed by Carmiel Banasky

We've become obsessed with breaking things apart, dissecting and compartmentalizing the world, of having all knowledge—however meaningless or pointless—at our fingertips at all times. —Alex Jaros

I love when I give people my work to read, and they tell me what questions they have. When somebody says, "I want to know more about such and such," or someone says, "you went on a long time about the sister," that's helpful feedback. —Joan Wickersham, interviewed by Amy Yelin

I suppose my lack of self-confidence as a writer came from constantly comparing myself to the image of the free-spirited artist type. In comparison, I was so high strung. Though what I learned from my upbringing and educations journey is how to manage my time. —Weike Wang