“In my novel, pop culture proves to be diabolical, but not so with these songs.”
“My playlist is comprised of songs that soundtrack the ATLien’s journey, but also the seven years I spent writing the rest of the book: songs that accompanied the ordinary and extraordinary weather of those years—love, grief, friendship, loss, and the hardheaded, sometimes ridiculous work of trying to remain open to joy.”
“Perhaps because at my core I am a musician and a former performing pianist who became a critic and author, I almost never listen to music when I’m writing. Music is too powerful for me.”
“Considering the role of jazz in noir, I thought to move beyond superficial aesthetic and make the genius of John Coltrane the structural engine of my protagonist’s entire world. His first name is Coltrane, last name Davis. Exactly. He bears the names of arguably the two most important jazz musicians to ever live. My protagonist doesn’t like jazz; he IS jazz.”
“One of my favourite writers is Joni Mitchell. Every line is magnificent. Lay back in the darkness of the dock, and let the words spill over you.”
“Yearn, baby, yearn.
I wanted to make a playlist that wandered alongside my book.”
“This book is about continuing a relationship after death, about staying in conversation with someone who is no longer alive.”
“What compositions might channel new kind of literary mystery where the investigator is not a detective but a sound scientist?”
“Music, like literature, is a form of translation – it takes the roiling surge of feeling in the human breast and converts it into sound.”
“In the canon of art by immigrant daughters trying their best to be worthy of love, Mitski’s ‘Best American Girl’ is a crown jewel…”