I started coming up to New York at age 17. There was a girl I met over the summer somewhere; I was chasing her. I would drive up to D.C., where I had made some friends, which was about four hours away, and we would take the bus up to New York. Garth Risk Hallberg More Quotes by Garth Risk Hallberg More Quotes From Garth Risk Hallberg I think several generations of my family had novels in the drawer. You know the montage in 'The Royal Tenenbaums' where each character has produced some sort of minor work? It was like having a magician in the household. Garth Risk Hallberg you family work character I associated excellence in writing with New York City. Garth Risk Hallberg city new excellence writing I fell in love with New York at some indeterminate point in my early years. Garth Risk Hallberg some new new-york love Any character that can't be kept straight, to me, isn't a character who should be in the book - you know, anyone not vivid enough to have a claim on my attention. Garth Risk Hallberg me you character book I have this weird tropism for islands. Take me to an island as far from New York as I can possibly go. Garth Risk Hallberg weird new me i-can I grew up in a university town in eastern North Carolina - what's called Tobacco Road. It was very rural. Garth Risk Hallberg rural road up university One of the ways I stuck out was I was a very passionate reader. There was probably a cyclical nature to that; the more I felt like an outcast, the more I sought refuge in books, and the more I sought refuge in books, the more it made me not speak the same language as my peers. Garth Risk Hallberg me language nature speak At 14 and 15, I was sort of my town's resident beatnik. Garth Risk Hallberg resident sort town beatnik I had one week in the fall of 1996 where I was like, 'I'm America's greatest living teenage poet.' Garth Risk Hallberg like living america fall It may be that Tolstoy and Virginia Woolf were sitting around fretting about their Amazon reviews or their pre-pub whatever, but I kind of doubt it. I don't think that's how the work probably got made. Garth Risk Hallberg think sitting doubt work Narnia, Middle-earth and New York were my three fantasy universes when I was a kid. Garth Risk Hallberg new fantasy three new-york I remember reading 'The Hobbit' on a car trip from Ohio to Mississippi and getting out at a rest-stop in Mississippi and feeling jet-lagged at my return from Middle-earth. Garth Risk Hallberg feeling car reading remember If I could do what Hilary Mantel does, I would probably do that. She is more intelligent and a better researcher and knows more what she's about than I do. Garth Risk Hallberg she more better intelligent I'm trying to focus on my job as I see it, which is to write the next thing and to remain, to the degree that I ever was, a noticer. Garth Risk Hallberg job see focus trying I think there is a real thing going on where writers are feeling more liberated to write with a big canvas because of a demonstrable, continued appetite for long-form storytelling. Garth Risk Hallberg feeling big think real I find it heartening that readers are still excited about diving into a world. Garth Risk Hallberg find about excited world Reading was not just an escape or a Band-Aid; it was a deep form of feeling seen and recognized, and being able to see and recognize other kindred spirits. My dad was a writer, too, which also likely had something to do with that. Garth Risk Hallberg deep feeling dad reading I had this dream that I was going to come to New York and be a writer. Garth Risk Hallberg going new new-york dream A fragmented film such as 'Babel' gives the impression of 'edginess' but, in its form, tells us nothing we didn't already know. Garth Risk Hallberg us nothing know impression When I get online, there's this cycle of anxiety and narcissism that takes over, which is the part of me that I like the least. Garth Risk Hallberg over like me anxiety
