American - Author | 1977 -
A lot of fiction doesn't answer a question that any reasonable person would ever ask.
Elif Batuman
PersonQuestionAskFictionAnswer
Russian literature got me interested in what literature means.
MeLiteratureGotInterestedMeans
The book that made me decide to go into Russian literature was 'Anna Karenina,' which I first read in high school. The thing that appealed to me and constituted its Russianness for me was that it was simultaneously incredibly funny and sad.
FunnySadSchoolMeBookLiterature
The dominant question for us with regard to literature has become, 'What does this have to do with me, with life as I know it?' That's the question answered by all these books about how Proust was actually a neuroscientist or how Proust can teach you emotional intelligence.
LifeIntelligenceMeLiteratureYou
Imagination is really dependent on memory and observation, these things that we think of as part of nonfiction writing, actually.
ImaginationMemoryWritingThink
You can't invent something you have no epistemological access to. In a way, it's all recombination.
YouWaySomethingAccessInvent
There are very few things that I have any patience for that are not at least a little bit humorous.
PatienceLittleThingsFewLeast
It's kind of an embarrassing story - that's why it's called 'The Idiot.' But looking back at your past self, you see that this person had reasons for everything she did. There's a whole lot of awkwardness, but really, what should one be embarrassed about?
PastLooking BackLookingStorySelf
It's so embarrassing and painful to be young.
YoungPainfulEmbarrassing
People don't become writers because they love having spontaneous, real-world interactions with living people as bodies with clothes in time.
LoveTimePeopleClothesLiving
There is this way that I felt when I was younger that we were beyond history and we were all citizens of the world that now seems so naive.
HistoryWorldNowWayBeyondNaive
When you walk around, you have all this stuff rattling around in your head, things that have happened to you, things you have read. Life is just life, and you get what you get out of it.
LifeWalkYouOutHeadThings
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