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Women at Work
Women Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews
This selection includes interviews with some of literature's great women: Dorothy Parker, Katherine Anne Porter, Lillian Hellman and many more.
387 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1989
40 people are currently reading
1157 people want to read
About the author
George Plimpton
317 books101 followersGeorge Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, actor, and gamesman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.
He was the grandson of George A. Plimpton.
He was the grandson of George A. Plimpton.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
April 3, 2012
These women writers were interviewed in the pre-Internet, pre-laptop era, many used the typewriter, and some wrote their manuscripts in longhand. “Cut and Paste” was literal, using scissors and glue. And yet, their trials and tribulations were no different from what writers face today, just different. All believed in a story being told and not in merely having beautiful language leading nowhere. All were highly opinionated and I could immediately identify with them despite being of the opposite sex.
The anecdotes in their lives are very engaging. Let’s see: Isak Dinesen sent her manuscript to America via the British Embassy’s mailbag (she had connections due to her aristocratic peerage) because of the war interruptions to mail traffic, Katherine Anne Porter spent 15 years honing her craft before feeling worthy of being published, Rebecca West lost her hearing and much of her eyesight during her career, Nadine Gordimer missed most of her schooling but was a published author at 21 and went on to win the Nobel, Anne Sexton was a compatriot of Sylvia Plath and took her own life at 46, Joyce Carol Oates gets depressed between finishing a novel and starting another and works on short stories in between.
The interviews are unstructured and go where the writer wants to take the interviewer. Some ramble, others hone in on sensitive subjects such as book banning, and the dismissal of literary greats and sorority groups. I mentioned opinions; here are some to whet your appetite:
Dinesen: “Unlike children of today, who are content to be observers...we were creators.”
Porter: Didn’t think that Scott Fitzgerald or the people he wrote about amounted to anything – “they led perfectly stupid lives.”
West: Liked Mark Twain and Doris Lessing; didn’t like Tolstoy (didn’t make his point very well), E.M. Forster (much ado about nothing), T.S. Elliot (poseur), Somerset Maugham (couldn’t write for toffee, but was an interesting man), Kafka (couldn’t write about sex) or Lawrence (awful nonsense about sexual violence). Didn’t think the New Yorker editors were any good.
Eudora Welty: Didn’t think much of biography. A writer’s life must be in their work.
Gordimer: Influenced by Hemingway but thinks his undoing is the intrusion of his own voice in the stories.
Sexton: “Suicide is the opposite of the poem.”
Cynthia Ozick: “Forget about ‘write what you know.’ Write what you don’t know, for you will begin to think beyond home-thoughts. You enter dream and imagination.”
Joan Didion: “Hemingway wrote perfect sentences, no sinkholes. Henry James wrote perfect sentences too but with sinkholes.”
Many of these writers felt, that given the time they were writing in, it was easier to be a male writer than a female writer. Didion says, “A man who wrote novels had a role in the world and he could play that role and do whatever he wanted behind it. Women who wrote novels were often perceived as invalids: Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles, Flannery O’Connor.” I have to disagree with this view in today’s context. With the proliferation of women writers and the majority of readers being women, I think the tables have turned during the last generation.
Despite the changes in the times, what comes out clearly in these interviews is that these women writers were totally committed to their art and made great strides during their time. Reading this book has also now interested me in reading more of their work. An engaging read indeed, for female and male writers.
The anecdotes in their lives are very engaging. Let’s see: Isak Dinesen sent her manuscript to America via the British Embassy’s mailbag (she had connections due to her aristocratic peerage) because of the war interruptions to mail traffic, Katherine Anne Porter spent 15 years honing her craft before feeling worthy of being published, Rebecca West lost her hearing and much of her eyesight during her career, Nadine Gordimer missed most of her schooling but was a published author at 21 and went on to win the Nobel, Anne Sexton was a compatriot of Sylvia Plath and took her own life at 46, Joyce Carol Oates gets depressed between finishing a novel and starting another and works on short stories in between.
The interviews are unstructured and go where the writer wants to take the interviewer. Some ramble, others hone in on sensitive subjects such as book banning, and the dismissal of literary greats and sorority groups. I mentioned opinions; here are some to whet your appetite:
Dinesen: “Unlike children of today, who are content to be observers...we were creators.”
Porter: Didn’t think that Scott Fitzgerald or the people he wrote about amounted to anything – “they led perfectly stupid lives.”
West: Liked Mark Twain and Doris Lessing; didn’t like Tolstoy (didn’t make his point very well), E.M. Forster (much ado about nothing), T.S. Elliot (poseur), Somerset Maugham (couldn’t write for toffee, but was an interesting man), Kafka (couldn’t write about sex) or Lawrence (awful nonsense about sexual violence). Didn’t think the New Yorker editors were any good.
Eudora Welty: Didn’t think much of biography. A writer’s life must be in their work.
Gordimer: Influenced by Hemingway but thinks his undoing is the intrusion of his own voice in the stories.
Sexton: “Suicide is the opposite of the poem.”
Cynthia Ozick: “Forget about ‘write what you know.’ Write what you don’t know, for you will begin to think beyond home-thoughts. You enter dream and imagination.”
Joan Didion: “Hemingway wrote perfect sentences, no sinkholes. Henry James wrote perfect sentences too but with sinkholes.”
Many of these writers felt, that given the time they were writing in, it was easier to be a male writer than a female writer. Didion says, “A man who wrote novels had a role in the world and he could play that role and do whatever he wanted behind it. Women who wrote novels were often perceived as invalids: Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles, Flannery O’Connor.” I have to disagree with this view in today’s context. With the proliferation of women writers and the majority of readers being women, I think the tables have turned during the last generation.
Despite the changes in the times, what comes out clearly in these interviews is that these women writers were totally committed to their art and made great strides during their time. Reading this book has also now interested me in reading more of their work. An engaging read indeed, for female and male writers.
April 27, 2011
The book contains a series of very interesting interviews from the 1960s and 1970s with women writers including Susan Sontag, Simone de Beauvoir, Toni Morrison, Nadine Gordimer and Joyce Carol Oates. Especially excellent are those with Katherine Anne Porter, Rebecca West, Dorothy Parker, Eudora Welty and Joan Didion. Most surprising and revealing were the interviews with P.L.Travers, creator of the Mary Poppins Books and the poet Elizabeth Bishop, both of whom I knew only remotely. Wonderful stuff.
For a writer there's something a bit daunting in the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of many (most) of these women - they are so very thoughtful and articulate and artful. Give it up if you don't really mean it would seem to be the message. But whether you mean it or not, there's much gold here.
January 13, 2018
I had this on preorder as soon as I saw it advertised, had to wait a long time for it to ship from the US but it was so worth it. I love the Paris Review - to me it has always been a bastion of creativity and intellect. This is such an insightful, inspiring book of interviews with a diverse and talented group of women writers. I use the term ‘women writers’ and not just ‘writers’ here because almost all the interviews explore what it is to be a woman who creates things, what the challenges are. This is the kind of book I won’t return to my shelf but will keep at my bedside to dip in and out of. A must read for any aspiring writers (particularly women).
October 19, 2023
This series is great for reading in short spouts like on the toilet lol
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October 25, 2018A gift from Gabriella
Interviews and profiles of twelve twentieth and twenty-first century writers, all all-stars, including: de Beauvoir, Didion, Atwood, Yourcenar, Bishop, Morrison etc. The interviews inspired me to read and write more, and served as a reminder that writing is a vocation (a full-time job), not a pastime.
I particularly want to read Jan Morris’s books
Interviews and profiles of twelve twentieth and twenty-first century writers, all all-stars, including: de Beauvoir, Didion, Atwood, Yourcenar, Bishop, Morrison etc. The interviews inspired me to read and write more, and served as a reminder that writing is a vocation (a full-time job), not a pastime.
I particularly want to read Jan Morris’s books
June 23, 2022
我喜欢波伏娃和珍妮特温特森。比起生活琐事和写作过程 锋利的观点和感情的流露显然更能打动我。珍妮特的部分简直动人极了 那是视文学为信仰的人才能说出的话。作家受了谁的影响不重要 因为她们最终也只能成为自己。女作家确实更了解女人 但视角也不一定就更有启发。有的作家实在不喜欢 跳过去了 不点名了显得政治不正确哼
December 28, 2015
This was much less interesting and useful than I had been expecting. The main problem was the interviewers who asked sycophantic, bland questions then let the writers (a lot of whom were old ladies when they were interviewed) ramble on, failed to press them when they didn't answer the question set, and never picked up on interesting points made which could have opened up interesting areas or made one want to know more details or background circumstances to single sentence anecdotes. There was nothing useful to a writer on process, nor to a literature student on meanings, intentions, references etc. Most of the highly intelligent, skilled writers interviewed therefore came across as dithering, waffling fools.
July 8, 2020
An insightful collection of interviews with favorite and famous writers. Each interview touches on the practical and the philosophical, how they write and why they write, and where they intersect for each writer.
Toni Morrison’s interview was my favorite; it was the most convivial, helpful, and openhearted, and the longest. She has very interesting things to say about making history tactile and personal, about writing and ritual, about working within and against language’s racial codes.
She talks about the work of carefully imagining characters, of taking control of them, of not letting them write the story for you. I always roll my eyes when authors talk about characters “taking control” of a story, as if the writer has lost their own agency and is now subject to some sort of preternatural process. I think that writers say this because they think it sounds inspired, or because they genuinely don’t know how to take responsibility for their own work. It was very affirming to read Morrison’s opinion on this problem, because she seems to feel similarly.
These interviews also unhappily pinpointed for me, once again, the many times in my life where I have made lazy or cowardly decisions with my own work. George Eliot said that it is never too late to be what you might have been, but does that maxim still apply at the end of civilization?
Toni Morrison’s interview was my favorite; it was the most convivial, helpful, and openhearted, and the longest. She has very interesting things to say about making history tactile and personal, about writing and ritual, about working within and against language’s racial codes.
She talks about the work of carefully imagining characters, of taking control of them, of not letting them write the story for you. I always roll my eyes when authors talk about characters “taking control” of a story, as if the writer has lost their own agency and is now subject to some sort of preternatural process. I think that writers say this because they think it sounds inspired, or because they genuinely don’t know how to take responsibility for their own work. It was very affirming to read Morrison’s opinion on this problem, because she seems to feel similarly.
These interviews also unhappily pinpointed for me, once again, the many times in my life where I have made lazy or cowardly decisions with my own work. George Eliot said that it is never too late to be what you might have been, but does that maxim still apply at the end of civilization?
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August 16, 2022will be buying part 2! morrison was probably my fav interview
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March 3, 2025great start to women’s history month
March 23, 2017
I thought I'd read this compilation of interviews partially because I didn't recognize some of the writers included. While it was interesting to learn more about half of the subjects, it was interesting to morph slowly into the more current of the group. I enjoyed those interviews so much more, because they seemed to be more pragmatic and down to earth. My favorites were Eudora Welty and Toni Morrison -- both writers that I know something about, but haven't read their work. I will in the future. As always, Maya Angelou was pure pleasure to read about -- I could hear her one-of-a-kind voice and cadence as I read the interview, and it made me smile. Dorothy Parker, of course, is the true meaning "wit," and so her interview was a joy to read as well.
There are some great nuggets of each writer's work process, but the lion's share of the interview content is less specific about the "how" and more "who" and "why". Enjoyable, for sure.
There are some great nuggets of each writer's work process, but the lion's share of the interview content is less specific about the "how" and more "who" and "why". Enjoyable, for sure.
December 23, 2009
4.5, for the Toni Morrison and Joan Didion interviews alone. I love the Paris Review interviews, and these were no exception. As always, the more contemporary writers interested me most, but I found something to be intrigued by in each of them. They made me want to write--and read. I jotted down at least a dozen "to read" books by the end. In fact, I think my 2010 reading resolution may be to read at least one thing by each of the featured writers (and re-read everything by Morrison, just for fun).
January 12, 2012
When reading these interviews (and my book is lined with different editions of them), I always feel as though I am among friends. Some are annoying, some deeply sensitive, and others impenetrable, but we all share this incredible love and experience of making words our world.
March 4, 2008
bagus buat gambaran bagi penulis dan calon penulis
August 8, 2009
versi indonesia:
menohok :P
menohok :P
September 12, 2019
Some dismiss The Paris Review as elitist. But the interviews in Women at Work are the same peek-behind-the-writing-scenes you’ll find in any number of new podcasts (podcasts like Beautiful Writers, Longform, First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing, 10 Minute Writer’s Workshop, and Writers’ Rough Drafts).
The only difference is many of these interviews come from pre-internet days when the gatekeepers could let only a few voices through and, in the narrow spotlight, those voices became giants.
So if you’re into podcasts that talk about the writing life, writing techniques, how other writers approach their work and structure their lives to fit the writing in, you’ll love this book of interviews with so many giants of the literary world.
Better, each interview is from a time when writing paid well enough for a person to make a living and a life out of it exclusively, with time for relaxing luncheons in brightly lit New York apartments in between.
These interviews are a fantasy peek into lives that, if you’re the type who’s in love with writing, are more exciting than the average Instagram influencer’s.
The only difference is many of these interviews come from pre-internet days when the gatekeepers could let only a few voices through and, in the narrow spotlight, those voices became giants.
So if you’re into podcasts that talk about the writing life, writing techniques, how other writers approach their work and structure their lives to fit the writing in, you’ll love this book of interviews with so many giants of the literary world.
Better, each interview is from a time when writing paid well enough for a person to make a living and a life out of it exclusively, with time for relaxing luncheons in brightly lit New York apartments in between.
These interviews are a fantasy peek into lives that, if you’re the type who’s in love with writing, are more exciting than the average Instagram influencer’s.
January 27, 2018
Good interviews are rare, probably even rarer than good conversations. This book gives a dozen great conversations / interviews in one place. I don't know if the fact that all people interviewed are women or (and) writers has any importance. What matters is ten beautiful, long (it is a value here), witty conversations and I would call it even a celebration of interview as a form of art.
However, about half of the writers I've never heard of before, and have read only Beauvoir which makes me a bit of sad plus concerned with "why?" All of them deserve going straight on the reading list, and maybe that's an added value of taking out these interviews from the archives of Paris Review and putting them back on the reading table.
"Even if you are reproducing disorder, you are sovereign at that point. Struggling. Through the work is extremely important - more important to me than publishing it", - Tony Morrison
However, about half of the writers I've never heard of before, and have read only Beauvoir which makes me a bit of sad plus concerned with "why?" All of them deserve going straight on the reading list, and maybe that's an added value of taking out these interviews from the archives of Paris Review and putting them back on the reading table.
"Even if you are reproducing disorder, you are sovereign at that point. Struggling. Through the work is extremely important - more important to me than publishing it", - Tony Morrison
June 12, 2025
Similar to my experience with Salinger’s writing days journal, this book is a master class for writers. Each woman writer gave me insight into myself and how I work. Each were deep thinkers and every interview was interesting. My favorites were Dorothy Parker, Elizabeth Bishop (this interview was my number 1), Toni Morrison and Joan Didion. There are a couple I’ll need to reread and at least one I missed completely because I jumped around.
*** for my own notes: Found this on one of my last downtown Wilmington walks in a Little Free Library, finished it at the beach trailer during my summer project on Carolina Beach.
*** for my own notes: Found this on one of my last downtown Wilmington walks in a Little Free Library, finished it at the beach trailer during my summer project on Carolina Beach.
October 14, 2020
This book was just superb and in many places thrilling. It brought to light the writing process just at a time when I needed some help and gave me courage to continue to hone my writing and treat it seriously. I've read almost all the authors and was particularly drawn to Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel, and, of course, Toni Morrison.
August 28, 2021
This is , as always from the Paris Review, a wonderful collection of interviews. Compiled chronologically, I get to revisit some favourite authors and discover a few I’ve bypassed- leading to a new reading list. The depth of these interviews is excellent and luckily , there are two more collections in this new series for me to sample.
November 30, 2019
it was really interesting to read how some of these female writers work and how they think and feel about certain topics.
I found new stories I now want to read and know more about than I knew before.
Very interesting!
I found new stories I now want to read and know more about than I knew before.
Very interesting!
June 14, 2023
This concludes my Writers at Work Series, which I went through at a blistering pace because I wanted to read them as quickly as possible. Now that I have read them, including Women Writers at Work, I can go through them at leisure.
January 10, 2025
Sharp, stylish, and sometimes combatitive would probably describe most of the women -- authors or poets all -- drawn into conversation in this collected set of interviews. I desperately want to hang out with them.
November 23, 2018
Some really great interviews tucked into this volume. Very inspiring to read the process and challenges of women writers and artists.
December 15, 2018
Some interviews are more interesting than others, but what this book does really well is show that there are many ways of being a writer, of doing the work, and of thinking about the work.
April 6, 2020
I just think they're neat!
April 19, 2020
A wonderful collection of interviews of a diverse body of writers.
July 14, 2020
A dozen in-depth interviews with high-profile women writers.
September 26, 2020
I needed this book right now. Not only is it a collection of kick-ass women, it's a chance to connect with the ways others make art throughout time.
December 4, 2021
To observe, to perceive and to believe ourselves. To speak, to express and to record our stories.
To be a woman, to be a true woman.
To be a woman, to be a true woman.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews