On your nightstand now:
Let's see . . . I've got The Lords and the New Creatures, which is a book of poetry by Jim Morrison. A Guide to Gems, which is exactly what it sounds like. And A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin. There are about 15 books laying around my bed, so I chose the ones whose titles I could see without actually having to get up and move anything. I'm reading all of them off and on.
Favorite book when you were a child:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I never could get over that book.
Your top five authors:
This is a truly challenging question. I'm going to put down the first five that come into my mind. Marguerite Duras, Paul Bowles, Carlos Castaneda, Anne Rice, James Baldwin. And I'm going to add Anaïs Nin for writing Cities of the Interior. Dorothy Allison for both Trash and Skin. And finally J. K. Rowling for giving me that wonderful feeling, through eight magical books, of waiting and waiting for the next one to come out.
Book you've faked reading:
Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Everyone was reading it at the time, so I said I was too. And then for years after, I continued to say that I'd read it. Even now I find myself talking about it in ways that actually seem plausible to other people--unless they're just being nice.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda. I've probably read this book four or five times. Marguerite Duras's The Lover. I used to try to write sentences from that book better than she did. Of course, I never succeeded.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Best American Erotica 1998 because it had the word erotica on it.
Book that changed your life:
The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras. This book put me in a kind of trance. It made me feel that everything was sort of mysterious for the whole time I was reading it.
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. When I finished reading it, I felt that it had to be passed on, so I handed it to a stranger sitting next to me in a bar. Maybe it changed his life too.
Oh yes, and Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. The moment I finished it I had to remove it from my apartment. I just opened the door and put it out on the welcome mat. I couldn't sleep with it in my studio.
Favorite line from a book:
I just read Neil Gaiman's truly wonderful book Stardust so I'll choose a line from that:
"There were wonders for sale, and marvels, and miracles; there were things undreamed of and objects unimagined (what need, Dunstan wondered, could someone have of the storm-filled eggshells?)"
Ha! Storm-filled eggshells. I love that!
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Kerouac's Tristessa, The Subterraneans and On the Road, for the sheer thrill of moving at the speed of light while lying in bed.
The Lover by Duras because it's a thing of such great beauty and perfection.
