"I teach the standard workshop because no one has come up w/something better. But I can’t stand it."

I love this interview: I’m Looking to Jump Ship Sooner Than I Should: A Conversation with Percival Everett

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"You’ve got this ambiguity in a lot of your endings that stands in direct contrast to the definitive way you start every story. How do you know when the story is done?

We abandon stories. They don’t end. So, endings aren’t that important because there’s no such thing. This goes back to the idea that I know less when I end a novel than when I’ve begun.

Have you ever had a hard time abandoning a story?

Sure. And sometimes, I’m looking to jump ship sooner than I should. But writing is just a bunch of decisions you have to make. Back to the Kierkegaard: Do it or don’t. You have to make a decision. No matter what you do, you will have this counterfactual thought about what it would have been if you had done something else."

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