We Were Running Out The Door Ten Minutes Ago, But…

October 26th, 2004 · No Comments
by Booksquare

We thought, what the heck, this John Sayles interview is short, we’re playing with a few short stories…besides, it’s not like we’re eager to hit the freeway for another day of meetings. If we’d followed the advice of Ryoko (the cat who informs us when we’re not living up to her expectations — she talks a lot), we would have overlooked this article. And that would be a shame because we will now spend the rest of the day in the bubble known as Hollywood:

My short stories are immersions into very specific worlds. There’s this idea implicit in my writing that Americans have these parallel lives—all over the place, these parallel cultures and societies exist independent of one another. People live in their own little bubbles and only occasionally do people in the media have a reason to cover them or find out what they’re all about. These are people who are in the police force or who are firemen or in the world of newspaper reporting—all of these are tight little worlds. It’s such a bubble that if you’re completely immersed in it, you may not hear about O.J. Simpson or whatever.

Sayles goes into more detail on this subject — one of our favorites. The world you inhabit, whatever it may be, is the world. You have your own language, laws, leaders. It is only when you step into another world (a parallel universe or not) that you realize the dictators in your world are Munchkins in another sphere.

  • So What Do You Do, John Sayles? The indie filmmaker releases his first book of short stories in 25 years and talks about his craft (Note: might be members only; we couldn’t tell)

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