Narrative art, the novel, from Murasaki to Proust, has produced great works of poetry.

The dominant question for us with regard to literature has become, 'What does this have to do with me, with life as I know it?' That's the question answered by all these books about how Proust was actually a neuroscientist or how Proust can teach you emotional intelligence.

After college, I went on a real big classics kick. Read everything by Faulkner, Hemingway, Woolf, Proust, Dostoevsky. And that classics train dropped me off at 'Dracula.' Halfway through it, I understood I'd never be going back, never 'leaving' the genre again. Since then, I've been on a fairly strict horror diet.

Narrative art the novel from Murasaki to Proust has produced great works of poetry.

In a country like France so ancient their history is full of outstanding people so they carry a heavy weight on their back. Who could write in French after Proust or Flaubert?