New Yorker Interview Quotes

“I tend to be drawn to what’s missing. You come across something missing, suddenly, when you don’t expect it—like, you’re walking across a field and fall into a dried-up well. I don’t know why, but I’m attracted to that sort of situation. Something that should be there isn’t, someone who should be there isn’t. And that’s when the story begins.”
― Haruki Murakami

“Your writing is full of indeterminacy and irresolution. It’s lifelike, in that way. But its complexity, to me, is less on the level of individual characters and more about something deeper, which you’ve sometimes called the “impersonal.” Could you talk more about that?

I’m drawn to impersonal or transpersonal experiences. Life and death. People describe these experiences in archetypal ways that all sound alike. Giving birth, which I’ve never done, that’s another transpersonal experience that many people have had. I’m interested in the mystery of personality, how our personalities arise and then how they fade.”
― Joyce Carol Oates