"William T. Vollmann Contains Multitudes"

So begins the new MotherJones interview with the voluminous writer of fiction and nonfiction. Dave Gilson joins Vollmann for some good old fashioned scotch-sipping and conversation "about the irrelevance of popularity, his distrust of the Internet, and his latest work, the 1,300-page nonfiction epic Imperial."

As a writer who attempts to straddle the worlds of fiction and nonfiction, I was particularly interested in what Vollmann had to say about his experience working in both genres:

WV: At least for me, it takes more knowledge to write fiction than nonfiction. You could imagine writing about a prostitute, for instance, but if you haven't spent time with prostitutes then you're going to get all these details wrong. But if you have a lot of sex with prostitutes and you're friends with prostitutes and you interview prostitutes, then maybe after many, many years you might be able to create prostitute characters. I feel like I'm almost ready to write fiction about the border. But even after 10 years of writing nonfiction about it, I don't think I know quite enough to do it right.

MJ: Does that make you question the fiction you wrote when you were younger?

WV: No, I don't think so. I think—at least I hope—that the fiction I've written so far has flaws but has mostly been successful. Hemingway always said, "Write about what you know." I think that we're all, as human beings, so limited. If we want to write about ourselves, that's fairly easy. But if we want to project ourselves somewhere beyond our personal experience we're going to fail. When I go train hopping and I look up into the sky, there are always so many more stars than I remember there were.

Word.

Thanks to Emily D. for the interview link!