Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethemis an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth19 February 1964
CountryUnited States of America
writing order paint
I don't paint anymore. I haven't since I abandoned it at 19, in order to begin writing seriously.
book people attention
Making books has always felt very connected to my bookselling experience, that of wanting to draw people's attention to things that I liked, to shape things that I liked into new shapes.
masters discomfort plans
Discomfort is very much part of my master plan.
skulls bears silent
I can't bear the silent ringing in my skull.
character mean writing
You don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to write a scene and a character in the English language, with images and words chock full of received meaning.
paper environment proof
I don't have a lot of paper in my immediate work environment, except when I'm doing things like checking the godforsaken proofs.
writing space long
I plan less and less. It's a great benefit of writing lots, that you get good at holding long narratives in your head like a virtual space.
children growing-up keys
As a child growing up in pre-gentrification Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, I went everywhere by bicycle. My bike was in many ways the key to my neighborhood, which, at the time, was Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. This was in the 60s and 70s, before all the white people and restaurants. I really can't underscore boldly enough the fact that I grew up in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, before it was gentrified. You could get mugged!
moving book writing
I keep one simple rule that I only move in one direction - I write the book straight through from beginning to end. By following time's arrow, I keep myself sane.
careers want lucky
What's lucky about my career in general is that I stumbled into what every writer most wants. Not repeating myself and doing strange things has become my trademark.
writing discipline fields
Writing is a private discipline, in a field of companions.
quarantine taste boundaries
I’ve always been uninterested in boundaries or quarantines between tastes and types, between mediums and genres.
reality skins heal
Consensual reality is both fragile and elastic, and it heals like the skin of a bubble.
summer thinking sky
How often had that hydrant even been opened? Did you jet water through a car window, what, twice at best? Summer burned just a few afternoons long, in the end. As for flying, Dose never even glanced at the sky. Flying was a summer within a summer, a whim. So why think of it at all?