“After a while you begin to understand that writing well is not a promised reward for being virtuous.” —Tobias Wolff buff.ly/458qdkt

“If you don’t like someone’s story, you write your own.” —Chinua Achebe buff.ly/3Qsefgq

“I remember older guests at the Webster—a group of fifteen or so among the hordes of twenty-somethings. We didn’t give them nicknames, but we did call the building itself the Spinster, the Dumpster.”

Tess Little on one of Manhattan’s boarding houses. buff.ly/3wVBWI5

“I don’t think symbolically at all.” —Lydia Davis buff.ly/46fyWSG

“LSD was never useful for writing, but it was useful for thinking. Speed was a bit more useful for writing, but I had to make sure I didn’t take too much of it.” —Alice Notley buff.ly/3uV9Ls0

“The Webster was not a lonely place. Each guest had her private bedroom, and that was it. Bathrooms were shared, no kitchens for guests to use; breakfast and dinner were taken collectively.”

Tess Little on one of Manhattan’s last women’s boarding houses. buff.ly/3wVBWI5

“I thought I’d find the place gutted, abandoned, but inside the lights are glowing. There are still beige couches, coffee tables, a vase of red flowers carefully positioned.”

Tess Little on one of Manhattan’s last all-women’s boarding houses. buff.ly/3wVBWI5

“My full name is Jhumpa Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri—my mother hadn’t expected to have to fill in the birth certificate while I was still in the hospital in London, so she put down all the names she’d been considering.” —Jhumpa Lahiri buff.ly/3Tg9doD

“I am greeted by the same sight that greeted tens of thousands of young women before me, the same sight that greeted a younger self when my cab from JFK pulled up a decade ago.”

Tess Little on one of Manhattan’s last all-women’s boarding houses. theparisreview.org/blog/2024/05/2…

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“The understanding of art depends finally upon one’s willingness to extend one’s humanity.” —Ralph Ellison buff.ly/45YpHGg

We’re hiring interns! The application deadline for our Fall–Winter internship is June 1. Pay is $20/hour, 35 hours a week, with the option to enroll in health insurance.

Details here: buff.ly/3tqOKnF

It’s Cheever’s birthday. Years ago I wrote about his incomparable journals for The Paris Review. theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/2…

“You know I am really stupid. For years I have looked for the perfect pencil. I have found very good ones but never the perfect one. And all the time it was not the pencils but me.” —John Steinbeck buff.ly/3HpqLYq

“The difficulty for me in writing is to write language that can work quietly on a page for a reader who doesn’t hear anything. Now for that, one has to work very carefully with what is in between the words. What is not said.” —Toni Morrison buff.ly/3scRSDh

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The Review’s largest bag to date, the weekender has room for all your travel essentials, books, and magazines.

Shop now. buff.ly/3yp1Ggj

“I think I made a hell of a mistake. That’s the first confidence I have. The other is that—I didn’t really have anything else to do. I mean I didn’t even have enough imagination to think of something else.”

We’ve unlocked our interview with Charles Olson. buff.ly/3WQe9Uy

“Words seem to me safe sites for me to inhabit.” —Gordon Lish buff.ly/47DMxVx

“Say what you mean. Say what you see. Make a photograph, if you can, for the reader.” —Stephen King buff.ly/3PM17SZ