Nicole Krauss
Nicole Krauss has often said she finds inspiration from reading. But the best part comes from being out in the world. On the subway, walking down the street. Getting to know people and landscapes, or cityscape, experiencing situations and conditions, even weather conditions in the most "visceral and vital way I can".
Walking and writing. Are they the same thing to you?
To me they mean the same kind of loneliness, of concentration, the same type of tension. Mailer once said something about physically training before beginning a novel. I'm a little like that, only during the process of writing rather than before. And I also like to run while writing a novel. For example when I was writing "Man walks into a room", I ran many miles. I probably could run to Canada. Because walking, running help ideas to come out more easily and to relax some of the tension involved in writing.
Writing in New York is different than writing in other places?
New York is a city that can easily be created, immagined, re-invented in everyone's imagination. It's as if the city itself asks the people who live there for it. Because New York is structured in such a way that in every corner there's a piece of memory. A city map is made up of those memories. And since for a writer to invent, to create himself is the basic starting-point of his job, writing in New York is different.
"The History of Love" was inspired by a group of authors whose work is haunted by loss: Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel and more. Which are your literary sources?
I remember I was 27 and was asked what it meant for me to be a writer. It was embarrassing. I was worried about losing my freedom. I could imagine someone reading my books but I couldn't stand someone asking me to compare myself to other writers. First of all, I was and still am a voracious reader. I simply love reading. I think we remain readers the whole of our lives. And this awareness helped me to relieve the tension of being a writer. I just needed to re-read those helpful, illuminating books I had in mind and I could find all the answers to all the questions. So I decided to put those books in my writings. In The History of Love there's a lost manuscript that reminds me of Bruno Schulz, the Polish writer who, while writing his masterpiece The Messiahwas killed during World War II, the book was lost.I love to imagine, to invent the destiny of lost books. I often have my characters talk in the words of other authors, my favourite authors: Samuel Beckett for instance, or Isaac Babel.
Does writing improve ourselves?
Writing is a basic instinct. It allows us to create a meaningful world. Life often means a lack of communication. That's why we need to read. Because reading means putting chaos in order.
Is memory in your opinion sacred?
I strongly believe in the power memory has to feed imagination and create stories. But no, memory is not sacred. We all use our imagination to tell ourselves stories, the truth of our lives. Memory makes a selection for us because it gives us the story of our life. Memory is human, moody, changeable. In my memory the Jewish identity is obvious as it's my being American. The Holocaust is a way to face survival.
About the author
Nicole Krauss (born 1974) is an American writer who lives in the Park Slope neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer and their son, Sasha.
Bibliography
Man Walks Into a Room (2003)
The History of Love (2005)
The History of Love was optioned by Warner Brothers in 2005. It is set to be directed by Alfonso Cuarón,who recently directed Children of Men and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The film is scheduled to be released in 2009.
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