Literature as Fact @ Link Wanderlust

Came across an interesting interview with Javier Marias, the celebrated Spanish novelist, translator and columnist.

“Literature does not explain, but it shows the world, and how we work. Shows the mystery, as it were, and helps us to understand a little better.”

Marias speaks about important aspects of writing including the importance of style and how genre is not as important. His views on creeping fascism are interesting. How he views fiction is also pertinent:

 

I always remind people that literature was always a thing for minorities. The initial print-runs of early 20th-century classics were sometimes 2,000 or 3,000 copies, and it took them years to go out of print and then be reprinted. In a sense, no doubt, there are many more readers nowadays than there ever were. So, no, I don’t think fiction shall perish. We need to be told something, now and then, that is definitive and cannot be contradicted or denied. Everything in real life can be contradicted or denied. Not in fiction. Madame Bovary died the way she did. That is inarguable. That is fact, even if she never really existed.

Marias is a writer who has been untouched by technology. He finds video games infantile and unhealthy as they encourage grown ups to remain stranded in childhood. This he sees as a risk. Reading writer interviews expands the mind. Which author interviews have you read and been influenced by?