Lydia Davis' New Collection Has Stories Shorter Than This Headline
It would have been very funny if I had been. That would have been a very peculiar reason — but it was a dream. And I thought it was a great dream, so I wrote it down.
On how she knows when to end a story
I think I have a sense right in the beginning of how big an idea it is and how much room it needs, and, almost more importantly, how long it would sustain anybody's interest. And that's sometimes been a problem with a story when it's sort of offered me two ways that it could go, and I have to choose one or the other.
On whether she ever lengthens or shortens her stories
Sometimes. The last story in the book, called "Ph.D," is really only one line long, and that started as, say, a paragraph. ... "All these years, I thought I had a Ph.D. But I do not have a Ph.D." A friend of mine had that dream — who does safely and securely have a Ph.D. But she would dream over and over that there was one crucial exam she had not taken.
On the longest story in the collection, called "The Letter to the Foundation"
More About Lydia Davis
Book Reviews
'Bovary' Translation Does 'Le Mot Juste' Justice