Jay McInerney’s latest novel, Bright, Precious Days, is available now from Knopf.

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What was the first book you fell in love with?

The first novels I fell in love with were White Fang and The Call of the Wild, but the first book that made me want to be a writer was the Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. I read “Fern Hill” in an anthology in eighth grade English class and I was knocked out by the musicality of Thomas’s language—and probably by the extravagance of the sentiment. It was the first time I realized that language was more than a transparent medium for conveying information and telling stories; in Thomas, language is almost an end in itself. I devoured all of Thomas and I eventually moved on to other poets before finally moving toward prose fiction under the influence of James Joyce and others.

Name a classic you feel guilty about never having read?

I’ve never read Remembrance of Things Past, or In Search of Lost Time, or whatever it’s called. There, I said it.

What’s the book you reread the most?

I’ve probably reread The Great Gatsby more than any other novel. I reread it in part because I find the prose—with it’s bright epigrams and lyrical interludes—intoxicating, and in part to see if I can figure out how it works.

Is there a book you wish you had written?

Gatsby aside, I wish I’d written Ulysses. Almost a hundred years later it still seems to have anticipated everything that’s come since.

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What’s the new book you’re most looking forward to?

I’m definitely looking forward to Jonathan Safran Foer’s new novel, Here I Am.

Jay McInerney

Jay McInerney

Jay McInerney is the author of seven previous novels, a collection of short stories and three collections of essays on wine. He lives in New York City and Bridgehampton, New York.