"The whole thing surprised me." Philip Glass reflects on his career and the people who have influenced his life while discussing his new memoir, Words Without Music (Liveright, 2015), in this recent installment of the Talks at Google series.

The novelist, critic, and essayist shares why he thinks writers are "predatory in a benevolent way" and how he met his inspiration for Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade (Liveright, 2014), a memoir of his friendship with a con man and convicted murderer.

Novelist, critic, and essayist Walter Kirn, whose book Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade is forthcoming from Liveright in March, recorded this open letter to Gary Shteyngart and "his accomplice" James Franco.