All of the little entries in 'The Cows' were written in an irregular way. There might be one or two done one day, and then two weeks might go by or four weeks, and then they were put in an order or sequence.
Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.
I don't like to hurt people's feelings, and I don't like to knock other writers as a matter of principle.
I follow my interests pretty - I don't like the word 'intuitively.' I follow them in a kind of natural way, without questioning them too much.
I think the close work I do as a translator pays off in my writing - I'm always searching for multiple ways to say things.
Collections aren't really planned. I just keep writing short pieces until I have enough for a collection.
I wrote the first draft of 'Madame Bovary' without studying the previous translations, although I gathered them and took the occasional peek.
I would recommend, definitely, developing a 'day job' that you like - don't expect to make money writing!
My stories are sometimes closer to poems or meditations, but often there is at least a little narrative in them.
I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it.
I do see an interest in writing for Twitter. While publishers still do love the novel and people do still like to sink into one, the very quick form is appealing because of the pace of life.
Often, the idea that there can be a wide range of translations of one text doesn't occur to people - or that a translation could be bad, very bad, and unfaithful to the original.
I never dream in French, but certain French words seem better or more fun than English words - like 'pois chiches' for chick peas!
I am basically the sort of person who has stage-fright teaching. I kind of creep into a classroom. I'm not an anecdote-teller, either, although I often wish I were.
I started writing the one-sentence stories when I was translating 'Swann's Way.' There were two reasons. I had almost no time to do my own writing, but didn't want to stop. And it was a reaction to Proust's very long sentences.
I've gotten very alert not just to mixed metaphor but to any writing mistake.
I see people sometimes who remind me of my narrators.
I think I have a sense right in the beginning of how big an idea it is and how much room it needs, and, almost more importantly, how long it would sustain anybody's interest.
I find teaching - I like it, but I find just walking into the classroom and facing the students very difficult.
I always interrupt work with other work, either in a small way or big way, so that's normal.
