Above all, whatever helps me write — books related to the topic, the historical period, which could be scholarly works and novels, as well as poetry and art books. When I’m writing, I’m not really interested in anything else.
I used to avoid reading great novels, the kind that make a real impression, since I was afraid they’d influence my style too much — that I’d succumb to their influence. I don’t feel that way anymore.
What moves you most in a work of literature?
I think it’s the fact that literature is its own republic where people can live and work together and, maybe more than anything, communicate perfectly — in depth, empathetically, morally, intellectually and in a revolutionary spirit. Sometimes a knowing glance and a single phrase will suffice for that perfect communication. The constitution is made up of passages from great books, and the history of the republic is also the history of literature, all the classics and all the literary eras that preceded ours. The present day is a wild jumble of voices, all very different from one another, yet often unintentionally similar. Here trends prevail, sides are taken, elections occur in the form of literary prizes and best-seller lists. There is also an opposition, and even an underground. The strange thing is that fictional characters live alongside the citizens of this republic, where they have equal rights.
What genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?
I’ve always loved science fiction. You might say that’s what I was raised on. The most important authors for me were Lem, Dick, the Strugatsky brothers. I don’t like fantasy, with one exception: Ursula Le Guin, but she rises above genre. I’m not a huge fan of crime fiction and have read only Agatha Christie, nothing else, really. I don’t really read nonfiction, with the exception of biographies. I really think the best genre is just a good, solid novel.
Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain?
They’re always distinctive figures. Herr Doktor Peter Kien is a reclusive and eccentric bibliophile from a book I adore, Elias Canetti’s “Auto-da-Fé.” He’s a character who fascinates me, whom I find simultaneously alluring and repellent. I feel I have something of the oddball in me, too. Ijon Tichy is a character from the stories of Stanisław Lem, among the wildest works I’ve read. I grew up on the cosmic adventures of Iljon Tichy, who approaches the unlikeliest adventures in the cosmos any human mind has ever devised with prudent reserve. I think he was the first to survive a time loop, before Hollywood caught on to that idea. Everybody knows Pippi Longstocking, so I won’t describe her here. What an idol. She taught me courage and how to make my ideas a reality. Miss Marple is my idol for my later years. I adore her curiosity, her tenacity and her lovely self-deprecating sense of humor.
