Likes Thomas Mann.

Transcript context

…I always love books, and Stranger’s a short book. I love books that are able to accomplish so much in so few pages, in so few words. The Stranger. There’s nothing unnecessary in The Stranger, and I always try to write a book where every sentence is just… There’s nothing unnecessary in the book. But it’s very hard to do, actually. Nietzsche could do this. Peterson talked about this, that every sentence in Nietzsche is chiseled and it’s perfect. And I think not every… I mean, that’s his tendency. He tries to write like this, and that’s very hard to achieve. That’s actually where the writing becomes poetic. So for me, Nietzsche also is like a poet. The aphorisms are poetry. So Nietzsche, stylistically, since you asked, was very important to me. So Camus, Nietzsche, James Joyce, and Kafka also. I always like Kafka. And I like Thomas Mann. I don’t know how well he translates, but in German it’s interesting, his take on how to… It’s funny. He’s a very funny guy. Even though he talks too much, but he’s good. So I always wanted to have these guys as my colleagues, basically. Are they there somewhere in your head as you’re writing?…

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