Me, literally any time someone asks me to talk about books:

There should be a timer for how long it takes me to get to Jane Austen in any and all book publicity events. I don't think it takes me very long AT ALL, lmfao

Honestly, I think interviewers were probably expecting a lot more James Baldwin in my answers, but honestly, I just wanted to talk about Jane Austen and how she is the blue print for how I think through questions of social precarity and intimacy.

Have you lived until you've randomly gotten teary about the end of Persuasion. Not the letter--tho...THAT LETTER--but the way that Jane Austen affords the characters the opportunity to re-encounter each other and not be as they once were but as they are now.

The thing that stops my heart every single time in Persuasion and that makes tears well in my eyes is that she very easily could have just...reset the characters. And been naive. And just, like, written the simple ending.

But she didn't! That moment when Wentworth asks if Anne would have accepted him had he come back. And Anne says, "Would I!"

I CRY. EVERY TIME.

WHEN HE SAYS, I DID NOT UNDERSTAND YOU. I SHUT MY EYES, AND WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND YOU, OR DO YOU JUSTICE.

I--CHILLS.

If I had to deliver a craft talk to save my own life, it would absolutely be about Persuasion as a great moral novel.

"Would I!" is one of those phrases from literature that randomly haunts me in the strangest moments.

To be clear, I also love James Baldwin. Another Country is the sprawling, messy novel of conscience that I think everyone should read, absolutely. It is absolutely a batshit book, but the places he gets to in that novel, the way the writing sings. It's just absurd, frankly.