10.26.2010

Paris Review: All Writer Interviews Now Online, Free

The Paris Review has put all of its interviews online, free to read and arranged by decade. Of the few I've read so far, (50s: Ralph Ellison,  60s: Edward Albee, 90s: Jose Saramago), standouts are

Marianne Moore's:

Working as a librarian was a big help, a tremendous help...

Words cluster like chromosomes, determining the procedure...

Do the poet and scientist not work analogously? Both are willing to waste effort. To be hard on himself is one of the main strengths of each. Each is attentive to clues, each must narrow the choice, must strive for precision...

and the interview with Jorge Luis Borges:


Ah, New York. I was there, and I liked it very much—I said to myself: “Well, I have made this; this is my work" and comments on Old English poetry, Eliot and Sandburg, humor in his work, and more--reading this one felt like being a student in a fantastic seminar.