Ask the Author: Hal Hartley
Answered Questions (4)
Hal Hartley
I just keep writing, describing the most colorless mundane reality, like writer's block, for instance, or how my computer is functioning. Before long, I find I'm obsessed by the choice of a word or the use of a comma. By then, I'm back on track.
Hal Hartley
My most recent book, a novel, Our lady of the Highway, began life as a screenplay for a TV series (ten half-hour shows) and was inspired, first, by the idea of outlaw nuns, then by nuns who make beer and, finally, outlaw nuns who make beer who become pop cultural icons. None of which I have any personal experience of. Though I was educated by Catholic nuns as a kid, they didn’t seem like outlaws to me. But what did I know?
Hal Hartley
Someone anonymously sent me the first two volumes of the three-volume Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (in English). Heavily annotated, lots of marginalia, many paragraphs circled in pencil. I have never met anyone else in person who has read these books which are important to me. Except… I once had a one-night stand with a girl who pointed to the volumes on my shelves and asked: "Did you actually read these?" That was almost a decade earlier…
Hal Hartley
Clarice Lispector, Complete Stories
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