Our Fall issue is here—featuring interviews with Svetlana Alexievich and Donald Antrim, prose by Sam McKinniss, Scott McClanahan, and Woo Dayoung, poetry by Diane Seuss and Zakaria Mohammed, art by Silke Otto-Knapp and Laura Owens, a cover by Elizabeth Glaessner, and more. Follow subscribe and read issue no. 257. buff.ly/eEDUJKN

Today would have been the poet James Schuyler’s 103rd birthday. Read Schuyler’s interview with Peter Schjeldahl, published in issue no. 249 of the Review: buff.ly/c49Xwmm

“I start from a position of profound admiration for the work. But it’s a mistake, in my view, to be sentimental. Writing a biography is not a love affair. It’s not a marriage. It’s a job, it’s a piece of work.” —Hermione Lee buff.ly/6836O7t

“How am I to explain all this to you? The story is, for me, life itself. The telling of the story is a story in itself. And the language in which the story is told is another whole story in itself.” —Arundhati Roy buff.ly/8VElBmo

“I used to write poems. I don’t think I could recover from the embarrassment of reading those.” —Mark Leyner buff.ly/yDyFSMT

“Such a small percentage of people get everything and all the rest get virtually nothing.” —Jim Harrison buff.ly/QulB1kT

“Exile and return for the writer are crucial replays of the flight from constraints and the need for their recovery.” —Wright Morris
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“When I was fifteen and went to the city, I was amazed at how much people talked and how much of that talk was pointless. And how much people talked about themselves—that was totally alien to me.” —Herta Müller buff.ly/NJ1obLS

This week, we’ve unlocked Robert Caro’s Art of Biography interview, along with Matthew Baker’s story “Why Visit America,” from the archive. buff.ly/nJ4z3N4

“A perfect poem is impossible. Once it had been written, the world would end.” —Robert Graves buff.ly/Ju74yOD

“‘What a great thing! To be a writer! Words are something you can carry in your head.’” —Robert Creeley buff.ly/3zXyubQ

“It’s only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement.” —Lawrence Durrell buff.ly/hCAEWM8

“There’s something horrifying about having your memory become part of the public memory.” —Mary Karr buff.ly/zT6H6Se

“A lot of writers are unintentionally funny.” —Russell Banks buff.ly/POyqsqm

“A poem is not just an act of the mind.” —Henri Cole buff.ly/8hfJ0jn

“You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.” —James Baldwin buff.ly/P0c6tv8

“There’s no more thrilling process than creating. And that’s all I ever wanted to do as a kid.” —Charles Johnson buff.ly/SzwrFSV

“I write all kind of ways. I write on everything but a typewriter. I write long hand. But mostly I write on the computer.” —Walter Mosley buff.ly/fcFWL4h

“It’s not your teachers you want to please, it’s your peers.” —Jane Smiley buff.ly/rrCM9ZK

“For seven years, I heard people say, No one is going to read a book on Robert Moses.” —Robert Caro buff.ly/awKquFD

“Every human life includes moments of rage at unrecognition.” —Jonathan Lethem buff.ly/s7i5YlD