Careful not to curse him with my
scent, I unravel the vine.
He does not scurry off.

Amy Bonnaffons:“I really liked the idea that even the people who literally carry out the business of death and of transition from this world to the next have no idea what they’re doing.”

“Death. Dying. Grief. That existential fear that surprises you when the barista hands you your latte and you suddenly think, "Oh, wow, we're both going to die eventually and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it."“

Fiction has always been a laboratory to study the human condition but with the advancements of technology and science becoming more commonplace, fiction has become a simulation runner to experiment on the plausible consequences of these achievements.

“You almost always use more words than you need on a first pass, but I’m the type that gets obsessive over what ends up on the cutting room floor. The benefit is that anything excised can be repurposed in a different work. “

Lara Vapnyar discusses the “mysterious Russian soul”, childhood, and how she learned she is a powerful writer.