David Shields - The Very Last Interview

Which came firstthe approach or the argument? How many times have you been sued? The law is my musewhat does that mean? Do you really believe that? How can you tell a good idea for a book from a bad idea for a book? When you get a good idea for a book, what do you do next? Where do these ideasgood, bad, indifferentcome from? Have you ever had a great idea for a book and then dis-carded it? If youre working on a new book now, might you wind up discarding it? If you discard it, can I have it? While youre writing a book, do you discuss it with fellow practitioners? Is there really such a thing as a writing community? Do you ever wish you could tell a story in a more straightforward manner? Do you miss being a novelist? This is a wildly overused trope, but some of the reviews of your earlier books said you had the potential to become something approximating your generations version of Salinger. Youre now more like the baby boomers Hermann Broch; doesnt that feel like quite a letdown? Several of your books are very similar in approach; do you work on more than one at a time? Do any of them feel to you redundant? You once said to meas a joke, I supposethat all your books are brief, collaborative, and plagiarized, but, really, what is the secret to your somewhat monomaniacal rate of production, especially the last decade? Perish into the work, I suppose, per the Kunitz dictum? Did you always want to become a writer? Why? Which was the bigger influenceboth of your parents being journalists or your childhood stutter? Whats the first thing you ever published, outside of college magazines? Outside of academic journals? Outside of magazines edited by your friends? How do you find an agent? Is it difficult? How many agents have you had? Is that a lot? Seven agents but only one wife? Interesting. Ex-wife? I see. Recently? Sorry to hear that. Did you encounter much rejection at first? Do you still? What have you learned from rejection? According to E.M. Cioran, Only one thing matters: learning to be the loser.