The Paris Review
@parisreview.bsky.social
Quarterly literary magazine founded in 1953.
https://www.theparisreview.org/
https://theparisreview.substack.com/
https://www.theparisreview.org/
https://theparisreview.substack.com/
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The Paris Review
@parisreview.bsky.social
· Jun 16
Our Summer issue is here—featuring interviews with Harryette Mullen and Yan Lianke, prose by Lucy Ellmann, Chigozie Obioma, and Daisy Hildyard, poetry by Frederick Seidel and Hannah Piette, art by Hadi Falapishi and Andrew Kuo, a cover by Alex Da Corte, and more. buff.ly/HgGYH9d
“All my books were conceived by the time I was twenty.” —Marguerite Yourcenar buff.ly/CcpPylx
Marguerite Yourcenar, The Art of Fiction No. 103
On her refusal to publish with Virago Press: “I did not want to be published by them because they publish only women. It reminds one of ladies' compartments in nineteenth-century trains . . . ”
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September 15, 2026 at 8:00 PM
“All my books were conceived by the time I was twenty.” —Marguerite Yourcenar buff.ly/CcpPylx
“All I need to write is to run in the morning, to have coffee and a Coke at hand, and to be able to take a nap. The siesta is crucial.” —Javier Cercas buff.ly/U8hB0RG
Javier Cercas, The Art of Fiction No. 264
“Literature is pleasure and knowledge, like sex. It’s useful only so long as one doesn’t set out to make it useful.”
www.theparisreview.org
September 15, 2026 at 6:00 PM
“All I need to write is to run in the morning, to have coffee and a Coke at hand, and to be able to take a nap. The siesta is crucial.” —Javier Cercas buff.ly/U8hB0RG
“Anytime I’m not actively composing a little bit every day, I’m afraid that I will stop writing, and I don’t feel good if I don’t write.” —Alice Notley buff.ly/VyAhv3O
Alice Notley, The Art of Poetry No. 116
“Writing is not therapy. That’s the last thing it is. I still have my grief.”
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September 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM
“Anytime I’m not actively composing a little bit every day, I’m afraid that I will stop writing, and I don’t feel good if I don’t write.” —Alice Notley buff.ly/VyAhv3O
“You might think, with sixteen books to my credit, that I’ve just loved every hour of writing. No.” —Gerald Murnane buff.ly/6Z01QaV
Gerald Murnane, The Art of Fiction No. 266
“A fatal question—what are people reading these days? Never mind what people are reading these days. What should I be writing about is the fundamental question.”
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September 13, 2026 at 10:00 PM
“You might think, with sixteen books to my credit, that I’ve just loved every hour of writing. No.” —Gerald Murnane buff.ly/6Z01QaV
“My people keep getting wiped out. I’ve had survivor guilt for all the deaths I’ve survived. I keep surviving. I’ve survived deaths, and I’ve survived illnesses.” —Alice Notley buff.ly/VyAhv3O
Alice Notley, The Art of Poetry No. 116
“Writing is not therapy. That’s the last thing it is. I still have my grief.”
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September 13, 2026 at 4:02 PM
“My people keep getting wiped out. I’ve had survivor guilt for all the deaths I’ve survived. I keep surviving. I’ve survived deaths, and I’ve survived illnesses.” —Alice Notley buff.ly/VyAhv3O
“Once, at a gay bar, John and I were leaning on a jukebox, and he said, ‘I’d rather stand here exchanging limp remarks with you than go out and pick somebody up.’” —James Schuyler buff.ly/wxIk9zN
Not Enough about Frank: A Visit with James Schuyler by Peter Schjeldahl
“It was always a pleasure to look at Frank, even when he woke up in the morning smelling like a brewery, with bloodshot eyes.”
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September 12, 2026 at 10:00 PM
“Once, at a gay bar, John and I were leaning on a jukebox, and he said, ‘I’d rather stand here exchanging limp remarks with you than go out and pick somebody up.’” —James Schuyler buff.ly/wxIk9zN
“I quite dislike method—or distrust it, let’s say.” —Fredric Jameson buff.ly/xbfOZkt
Fredric Jameson, The Art of Criticism No. 5
“Ideological critique has to end up being a critique of the self. You can’t recognize an ideology unless, in some sense, you see it in yourself.”
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September 12, 2026 at 6:00 PM
“I quite dislike method—or distrust it, let’s say.” —Fredric Jameson buff.ly/xbfOZkt
“Oh no! Reading beautiful books can’t be traumatizing. Seeing awful things can be—but reading? I don’t believe in that at all.” —Marie NDiaye
buff.ly/sL7Accb
buff.ly/sL7Accb
Marie NDiaye, The Art of Fiction No. 268
“Reading beautiful books can’t be traumatizing. Seeing awful things can be—but reading? I don’t believe in that at all.”
www.theparisreview.org
September 12, 2026 at 2:00 PM
“Oh no! Reading beautiful books can’t be traumatizing. Seeing awful things can be—but reading? I don’t believe in that at all.” —Marie NDiaye
buff.ly/sL7Accb
buff.ly/sL7Accb
“When you begin a novel you are in a state of unlimited freedom, and this is alarming.” —Iris Murdoch buff.ly/3QjNdJ8
Iris Murdoch, The Art of Fiction No. 117
“You can’t write a traditional novel without giving your characters moral problems and judgments.”
buff.ly
September 11, 2026 at 11:00 PM
“When you begin a novel you are in a state of unlimited freedom, and this is alarming.” —Iris Murdoch buff.ly/3QjNdJ8
“I deplored the idea that writing involves suffering, that it had to be a bloodletting. Later I found out that it would be, and maybe should be.”
From our Art of Fiction interview with Donald Antrim. buff.ly/4EmXCYZ
From our Art of Fiction interview with Donald Antrim. buff.ly/4EmXCYZ
Donald Antrim, The Art of Fiction No. 270
“I deplored the idea that writing involves suffering, that it had to be a bloodletting. Later I found out that it would be, and maybe should be.”
www.theparisreview.org
September 9, 2026 at 8:00 PM
“I deplored the idea that writing involves suffering, that it had to be a bloodletting. Later I found out that it would be, and maybe should be.”
From our Art of Fiction interview with Donald Antrim. buff.ly/4EmXCYZ
From our Art of Fiction interview with Donald Antrim. buff.ly/4EmXCYZ
“If you cut straight to the part you need, which is what journalists do, it won’t be interesting, and it won’t be the truth, either. Not the whole truth.”
From our Art of Oral History interview with Svetlana Alexievich. buff.ly/xiIRzbi
From our Art of Oral History interview with Svetlana Alexievich. buff.ly/xiIRzbi
Svetlana Alexievich, The Art of Oral History No. 1
“I immediately understood that in order to truly capture a historical moment, I needed to write a history of feelings rather than of events.”
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September 9, 2026 at 6:00 PM
“If you cut straight to the part you need, which is what journalists do, it won’t be interesting, and it won’t be the truth, either. Not the whole truth.”
From our Art of Oral History interview with Svetlana Alexievich. buff.ly/xiIRzbi
From our Art of Oral History interview with Svetlana Alexievich. buff.ly/xiIRzbi
Our Fall issue is here—featuring interviews with Svetlana Alexievich and Donald Antrim, prose by Sam McKinniss, Scott McClanahan, and Woo Dayoung, poetry by Diane Seuss a cover by Elizabeth Glaessner, and more. Follow the link in our bio to subscribe and read issue no. 257. buff.ly/eEDUJKN
September 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Our Fall issue is here—featuring interviews with Svetlana Alexievich and Donald Antrim, prose by Sam McKinniss, Scott McClanahan, and Woo Dayoung, poetry by Diane Seuss a cover by Elizabeth Glaessner, and more. Follow the link in our bio to subscribe and read issue no. 257. buff.ly/eEDUJKN
“It wasn’t that I thought I could be a good poet—I just knew I couldn’t be a good fiction writer.” —Sharon Olds www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Sharon Olds, The Art of Poetry No. 114
“I think it shows in the poems that the author didn’t ask permission of the parents to publish them.”
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August 27, 2026 at 8:00 PM
“It wasn’t that I thought I could be a good poet—I just knew I couldn’t be a good fiction writer.” —Sharon Olds www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
“A review is the opinion of one person, who may have been drunk during the performance.” —Lynn Nottage www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Lynn Nottage, The Art of Theater No. 19
“I write plays that are architecturally sound but packed with unexpected things.”
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August 27, 2026 at 6:01 PM
“A review is the opinion of one person, who may have been drunk during the performance.” —Lynn Nottage www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
“Even a musician with the most modest career in some local bar is to me more glamorous than the most glamorous writer.” —Mary Gaitskill www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
Mary Gaitskill, The Art of Fiction No. 257
“I think that if humans are still walking around in fifty years, and still reading fiction, my work will last that long. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
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August 27, 2026 at 4:02 PM
“Even a musician with the most modest career in some local bar is to me more glamorous than the most glamorous writer.” —Mary Gaitskill www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
“I’m constantly revising my thinking—I now say, Start where you are, and then connect to the world.” —Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, The Art of Fiction No. 253
“Gĩkũyũ is the language I feel more. English is just what I’m used to now.”
theparisreview.org
August 27, 2026 at 2:02 PM
“I’m constantly revising my thinking—I now say, Start where you are, and then connect to the world.” —Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
theparisreview.org/interviews/7...
“If a story is really good it simply lives on, regardless of what other people think of it.” —V. S. Pritchett
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2...
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2...
V. S. Pritchett, The Art of Fiction No. 122
“Invention invents itself. You have to get yourself into it. One is very dull when one starts. You have to give yourself several good kicks in the behind.”
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August 26, 2026 at 10:00 PM
“If a story is really good it simply lives on, regardless of what other people think of it.” —V. S. Pritchett
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2...
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2...
“I’m an intelligent person. I’m well aware that heads roll when the winds change. But it’s impossible to predict anything in Russia.” —Ludmilla Petrushevskaya www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, The Art of Fiction No. 267
“Humor doesn’t cut it, or romance, or lyricism—no, no, no. Only terror works.”
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August 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM
“I’m an intelligent person. I’m well aware that heads roll when the winds change. But it’s impossible to predict anything in Russia.” —Ludmilla Petrushevskaya www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
“As I see it, reality is chaos.” —Javier Cercas www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Javier Cercas, The Art of Fiction No. 264
“Literature is pleasure and knowledge, like sex. It’s useful only so long as one doesn’t set out to make it useful.”
www.theparisreview.org
August 26, 2026 at 5:02 PM
“As I see it, reality is chaos.” —Javier Cercas www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
“I’m not convinced people have to go to school. I’m not convinced people have to be literate. I’m sort of entirely against the educational system as it is at the moment.” —Alice Notley www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Alice Notley, The Art of Poetry No. 116
“Writing is not therapy. That’s the last thing it is. I still have my grief.”
www.theparisreview.org
August 26, 2026 at 3:01 PM
“I’m not convinced people have to go to school. I’m not convinced people have to be literate. I’m sort of entirely against the educational system as it is at the moment.” —Alice Notley www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Each week, we unlock from our archive stories, poems, and interviews for our readers.
Sign up for the Redux newsletter to receive these pieces—by writers like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Kazuo Ishiguro—to your inbox every Sunday morning. mailchi.mp/theparisrevi...
Sign up for the Redux newsletter to receive these pieces—by writers like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Kazuo Ishiguro—to your inbox every Sunday morning. mailchi.mp/theparisrevi...
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August 26, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Each week, we unlock from our archive stories, poems, and interviews for our readers.
Sign up for the Redux newsletter to receive these pieces—by writers like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Kazuo Ishiguro—to your inbox every Sunday morning. mailchi.mp/theparisrevi...
Sign up for the Redux newsletter to receive these pieces—by writers like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Kazuo Ishiguro—to your inbox every Sunday morning. mailchi.mp/theparisrevi...
“I remember looking out the window at school—I must have been fourteen or fifteen, bored, as usual, out of my mind—when it occurred to me that I could be a writer. The thought was like having a new identity.” —Hanif Kureishi www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Hanif Kureishi, The Art of Fiction No. 265
“When I was in hospital in Rome, having the experience of being a paralyzed man nearly dead, my only excitement was in the thought that I could write some of this shit down.”
www.theparisreview.org
August 25, 2026 at 10:00 PM
“I remember looking out the window at school—I must have been fourteen or fifteen, bored, as usual, out of my mind—when it occurred to me that I could be a writer. The thought was like having a new identity.” —Hanif Kureishi www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
“People are constantly asking questions that really mean, How can you persist in being this naked? Aren’t you ashamed and humiliated just to be here? And you think, No, I’m good, but you seem pretty worried.” —Maggie Nelson www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
Maggie Nelson, The Art of Nonfiction No. 13
“Any time someone has suggested that the kind of book I was describing couldn’t or shouldn’t be pulled off, it’s made me think, I’ll show you.”
www.theparisreview.org
August 25, 2026 at 6:00 PM
“People are constantly asking questions that really mean, How can you persist in being this naked? Aren’t you ashamed and humiliated just to be here? And you think, No, I’m good, but you seem pretty worried.” —Maggie Nelson www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...
“The whole process of getting old—it could have been better arranged.” —Ursula K. Le Guin www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6...
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Art of Fiction No. 221
“One of the things [fiction] does is lead you to recognize what you did not know before.”
www.theparisreview.org
August 25, 2026 at 3:02 PM
“The whole process of getting old—it could have been better arranged.” —Ursula K. Le Guin www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6...
“Wearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day’s work.” —Ernest Hemingway theparisreview.org/interviews/4...
Ernest Hemingway, The Art of Fiction No. 21
From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation…
theparisreview.org
August 25, 2026 at 1:02 PM
“Wearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day’s work.” —Ernest Hemingway theparisreview.org/interviews/4...