‘To explain what I now feel for the pipe I must paraphrase the writer Robert Stone’s remarks on hard drugs: I admire it from afar.’
I hardly know where to begin when it comes to describing a single object in my writing room. We’re talking the literary equivalent of Francis Bacon’s studio here, for the room is a dusty, mildewed slew of stuff, a terminal moraine of yellowing paper, and a slurry of tat. The walls are covered wi…
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
Will Self and Mark Doty's discussion with Granta publisher Sigrid Rausing about blood, the surprising relationship between Bram Stoker and Walt Whitman and the nature of addiction.
‘I had been struggling – as every wannabe writer should – with what it was that I could conceivably write.’
Will Self on the influence of J.G. Ballard.
In this episode of the podcast, Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers reads ‘False Blood’ by Will Self.
Striking the keys of the same typewriter that once sat under J.G. Ballard’s fingers, Will Self reimagines the legendary writer’s last days.
‘The only real universals are that we all live – and, of course, we all must die.’
‘I grew up in an environment where there was nothing weird about limitless friendship.’
