From his March 2012 Q & A at the Guardian:
Who's your favourite writer?--Marshal Zeringue
There are dozens but I have always felt a special affinity with VS Pritchett. He worked from the ear, primarily, as I do, and he was an all-rounder, writing short stories, novels, memoir, travelogue, critical biography. He lived to be almost 100, and he never stopped, and his work is unified by a great generosity of spirit.
What are your other inspirations?
Early in the morning, Turkish coffee. Late in the evening, whiskey and the pipe. Also, the way people speak. And the hauntedness of certain places. And box-sets of Trojan Records dub reggae from the 1970s. And the TV dramas of David Milch and David Simon. And the comics of Los Bros Hernandez. And … I could go on, endlessly.
Give us a writing tip.
When you wake up, instead of checking emails on your phone, or counting your retweets, pick up a pen and scratch a few sentences into a notebook. Writing is very close to dreaming, it comes from the same sub-conscious murk and flux, and first thing in the morning – when you're still puddled in dream-melt, as Don DeLillo says – is...[read on]
