Mark Leyner
Mark Leyner
Mark Leyneris an American postmodernist author...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
book grandparent looks
I've always wanted to be a poet at the beginning. I would look at my grandparents' books and my parents' books. And in my family, a typical aspirational Jewish family, being a writer was very much exalted, and it seemed impossible to me, that I could ever do something like that.
yards looks manuscripts
I can tell from about 20 yards away when someone has a manuscript for me. I can just tell - they have that look.
adults kind anarchist
I thought of myself as kind of an anarchist all my whole adult life, from the days when I was 15 or 16.
trying delight reader
My relationship with my readers is somewhat theatrical. One of the main things I try to do in my work is delight my readers.
art games play
I'm fascinated with video games, though I can't really play them. It's definitely an art form that intrigues me to no end, though.
interesting mind interesting-things
The interesting thing about something in the back of your mind is that it can travel pretty far back in your mind.
style trying world
As far as what I do, my value as a writer is certainly not to try to recapitulate a 19th century form. Certain styles of narrative don't conform to my style of experiencing the world.
reading writing certainty-in-life
Et Tu, Babe' was born out of my absolute certainty that a writer's life was solitary and insular, and I was happy with that. I love reading and writing; it's my whole life.
memories thinking games
I think of memory as a game, that is as something one engages in with a very profound kind of "playfulness."
fun thinking interesting
I think to simply make fun of something isn't particularly interesting. I try to not just do a parody of something or belittle something or disparage something.
husband father son
My work generally tends to be an all-out, 360-degree subversive take on everything, most of all my own notion of myself as a son, father, husband, human being and male in this culture.
thinking interesting comedy
Stand-up comedy had an interesting effect on me in terms of how I started to think about constructing things, because I really loved the interstices, the linkages, or lack thereof.
believe impossible-things seductive
When I started, I wanted to be thought of as tortured and seductive, not funny, but humor tends to be a reflexive part of a person's sensibility. It's an almost impossible thing to teach anyone, which leads me to believe that it's intuitive.
joy great-joy
It's in great joy that we grasp truth.