Katie Kitamura Sometimes Falls In Love with Her Characters (and Other Literary Tidbits)

Katie Kitamura’s novel, Audition, is available now from Riverhead, so we asked her a few questions about writing, reading, favorite characters, and more.

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What time of day do you write?
My ideal time to write is first thing in the morning—when I can, I like to move directly from bed to desk and writing, before much in the world can intervene. I don’t get to do this very often though, and I mostly write whenever I can.

How do you tackle writers block?
I read. And when that doesn’t work, I go to see an exhibition, or a play, or a concert. But I’m not often blocked. I don’t get that much time to write, so when I have the time I usually seize it without much trouble. Maybe that would be my advice about writer’s block—that it’s okay to take a break from writing.

As Tove Jansson said, “Never write because it is the day to write!”

Which of your characters is your favorite?
A rakish bookseller called Anton, who appears in Intimacies. He’s a terrible and perverse person and I loved writing him. I actually wrote many, many more pages centered on this character.

But when my husband read the first draft of the novel he said, “You’ve fallen in love with this character and you’ve let him hijack your novel.” It was true, and I cut it all.

Which book(s) do you reread?
The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. The Makioka Sisters by Junichio Tanizaki. Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me by Javier Marias. Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

How do you decide what to read next?
I have a pile of books that I need to read for events, or because I’m judging something, or because people have requested a blurb. I have another pile that is related to whatever book I’m writing, and then a third pile that is related to whatever book I’m thinking of writing after that.

And then there’s a mound of other books, and that is the group I end up pulling from the most, maybe because it feels a little delinquent—books that have caught my eye, and that I have no duty or reason for reading, apart from the vagaries of my interest.

What is your favorite book to give as a gift?
The people I most often give books to are children, and the book I love giving is Rivka Galchen’s Rat Rule 79. Technically a book written for children, but a book that will delight readers of all ages.

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Audition by Katie Kitamura is available via Riverhead.