Paula's Interview - Question #1

Paula's interview has been fermenting in my in-box for a few weeks now -- I wrote out thoughtful and considered answers on my G3 at home, dutifully saved them to a zip disk only to find out that no one has zip drives anymore at internet cafes. Sorry for the piecemeal, Paula.... Questions 2-5 will be along later!


1. Name a writer who greatly influenced you and why.


Anne Lamott -- She's a Christian, I'm an atheist. Yet she is so raw and real in her essays, which I have to say I prefer to her fiction. "Bird by Bird" is one of the best books on writing that I have ever read. One of the others is "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg.


Tom Robbins -- He talks about important things in a lighthearted way. Saw him speak at B&N in Union Square a few years back. He looked down my shirt when I bent over to put my book down for him to sign, then looked up at me and gave me the most joyfully dirty grin I've ever seen. Also the writer with whom I'd most like to have naked playtime.


Richard Russo -- When I was growing up, before its 80's renaissance, Pittsburgh was a dying blue-collar town, so I know the people in his books. He treats all of his characters with respect and humor, even the not-so-nice ones. Turns a phrase that can make you bark with laughter out of the blue.





Michael Chabon -- I mean, come on. Read "Wonder Boys." If the image of an aging, overweight stoner professor driving around in a vintage 70's Yank Tank with a dead dog and a tuba in a pony-print case in the trunk doesn't have you on the floor, you can't ever be my friend.








Steinbeck -- Probably the greatest American writer of the 20th century. A man's man without all that machismo Hemingway bullshit.