“What motivates me to write? The honest answer is perhaps a little dark: I imagine the feeling of great regret I’ll have to live with, if I don’t write the book that I know I can write. The wish to avoid that regret feels like fuel. Still, on days when writing feels impossible (too many days now, during this pandemic) a good thing to do is touch the world of my new book by reading it, tinkering with a word, rearranging a sentence. It feels vital to keep the world of the book animate in my mind, the characters itching to tear ahead and stayed only by my hand. Once that is done, any other activity of the day—cooking, making tea, handwashing clothes—is both an accomplishment and the land on which my characters continue to live.”
—Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning (Knopf, 2020)
Photo credit: Elena Selbert