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“They are, aren’t they?” Sylvia sighed. “I think it’s good that they’re getting the Christian message through entertainment. Did you listen to the Donut Man when you were younger? Kathryn from women’s group recommended it. There’s so much programming for kids that, if you really think about it, doe…

No, mostly because I have no idea how to do that. And I’m not a very money-minded person—I didn’t know how to manage my finances at all when I started. At some point in the nineties Mike Tyson went bankrupt and all these assholes were screaming about what a profligate moron he was, and I remember t…

I also drew a lot of inspiration for Veronica from the place where I was living, a very isolated area in Marin County, and from a canyon I used to walk in out there, which was so fecund and alive—you felt a living, humorous, playful intelligence in extraordinary motion even though, to the human eye…

INTERVIEWER

Did you keep working all these different jobs right up until you finished the collection?

GAITSKILL

Yes—I didn’t quit working until I’d sold the paperback rights. I eventually became a freelance proofreader, which paid much better than the Strand, so I had more uninterrupted b…

INTERVIEWER

What were you reading in the period when you started to write more seriously?

GAITSKILL

When I was out on my own and not going to school, a lot of junk—though some high-end junk, like Looking for Mr. Goodbar. I was living in Toronto then, so my attention was on Canadian writers…