Author Zadie Smith interviewed author Ian McEwan in the current issue of The Believer. In the interview, the two authors talk about everything from time to falling out of bedroom windows.
McEwan also shared some advice for young authors. He advised writers to get practice through writing short stories, which he compared to “trying on your parents’ clothes.”
Here is more from The Believer:
When people ask, “Is there any advice you’d give a young writer?,” I say write short stories. They afford lots of failure. Pastiche is a great way to start. But I was never really a great one for that kind of extreme Angela Carter magic realist stuff… although actually I got to know her and admire her and was kind of a neighbor in Clapham.