October 24, 2010

did they really put this in?

The Paris Review has put all of their interviews online, fifty years worth. Here's one of my favorites -- a 1993 interview with Don DeLillo, where (amongst other things) they discuss the research he did for Libra.

There are acres of FBI reports I barely touched. But for me the boring and meaningless stretches are part of the experience. This is what a life resembles in its starkest form—school records, lists of possessions, photographs of knotted string found in a kitchen drawer. It took seven seconds to kill the president, and we’re still collecting evidence and sifting documents and finding people to talk to and working through the trivia. The trivia is exceptional. When I came across the dental records of Jack Ruby’s mother I felt a surge of admiration. Did they really put this in?

Somewhere in a box I have a copy of this issue of PR. I like it better now that it's online.