Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay CMis a Canadian writer of fantasy fiction. Many of his novels are set in fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I or Spain during the time of El Cid. Those works are published and marketed as historical fantasy, although Kay has expressed a preference to avoid genre categorization...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth7 November 1954
CountryCanada
among
I never answer, because I can't, which is my favorite among my own books.
family
I grew up in a bookish family, so I read very widely. I was omnivorous, really.
common finds history plan resonance
I don't plan ahead; each book finds me. History itself, the resonance of the past with the present, is the common denominator in all of them.
Everything you have ever heard about the strangeness of Hollywood is true!
consequences fascinates might played
Significant consequences can begin very inconsequentially. That's one thing that fascinates me. The other thing that fascinates me is how accident can undermine something that's unfolding, something that might have played out differently otherwise.
editors poems seen several urged wrote
The poems were the only thing I wrote that was not for everyone else. Then my editors at Penguin, who were also friends and had seen several of them, aggressively urged me to do a book. Editors can be aggressive, especially after drinks. That's how 'Beyond This Dark House' appeared.
man
I'm still proud of the 'Fionavar Tapestry.' The fact I don't write the same way is as much as anything else the fact a man in his 50s doesn't write the way a man in his 20s does - or he shouldn't.
consciousness puns themselves
I say 'as it were' or 'so to speak' too often because puns and double entendres keep insinuating themselves into my consciousness as I'm talking.
art buying certainly edges exposure instead novelists rather suggest supposed thoughtful value
Do we value privacy in any real way? Thinking about blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace... all these suggest we value exposure rather more. And instead of challenging this transformation, as they are supposed to - certainly at the more thoughtful edges of the art - novelists are buying into it wholesale.
good odds repeat
Even if we remember the past, odds are good we'll still repeat it.
claiming degree educated fantasy great history past time treatment using work
When we work with history, to a very great degree we are all guessing. But by using motifs of time and history in a fantasy setting, we are acknowledging that this educated guesswork, invention, fantasy underlie our treatment of the past and its peoples - and we are not claiming a right to do with them as we will.
concerns issues major scholars society technology unwanted written
My privacy concerns have to do with the world, other people, technology intruding upon us - what Talmudic scholars once called 'the unwanted gaze.' Here I see major issues and concerns as society evolves, and I've written often on the subject.
years europe nightfall
When I was 18 years old, in a more innocent time, my first backpacking trip through Europe, I sneaked into the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum after nightfall and spent several hours in there avoiding the guards patrolling.
morning grateful writing
Writing is never, ever easy but I wake up every morning grateful for the gift of being able to do this.