Goodreads asked Jaclyn Gilbert:

How do you get inspired to write?

Jaclyn Gilbert Reading great works, both classic and contemporary, never cease to inspire me. Reading Madame Bovary for the first time last year, for instance, vastly opened up my ideas what is possible in crafting a novel. I like to feel like I am part of a larger conversation, especially in reading works that seem most unlike my own work. Disparate titles (thematically and stylistically) make me ask continual questions about what I am trying to say and how I might consider saying it better. This way, I am never bored....I am filled with a restlessness much like the one that drives my need to run daily...an uncertain tug urging me to explore unchartered terrain. It's what gives me the courage to draft a new section or chapter, same as when I need to run an unfamiliar loop in an unfamiliar city (secretly hoping I might get lost trying to find my way back)--my unconscious mind has to struggle to acclimate, to root itself in that unknown hungry to reach home.

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