Denis Johnson speaks

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In the wake of winning the National Book Award for his novel ‘Tree of Smoke’ last month, Denis Johnson has given a rare Q&A interview to the National Book Foundation’s website.

Conducted by Bret Anthony Johnson, author of the story collection ‘Corpus Christi,’ the interview is, to put it charitably, sketchy, but features its share of nuggets nonetheless. Asked whether, during the more than 20 years he spent on ‘Tree of Smoke,’ he worried about the novel not working, Johnson replies, ‘Well, I’ve never thought about this before, but now that you ask, it occurs to me I don’t have much interest whether any of my books work or not.’

Later, in response to a question about his ideal audience, he says, ‘I write for my wife, my agent, and my editor.’

Best of all is his response to the (now-ubiquitous) question about the writer’s role in a culture in which reading appears to be in crisis, which Johnson frames in predictably broad terms.

‘Storytellers,’ he says, ‘have enjoyed quite a wide audience over the last few centuries. Now it’s dwindling, and if the world’s leaders have their way, they’ll probably return us to an era when we tell tales around small fires in caves. But we’ll always have stories to tell. It’s nice to be doing it when folks still think it’s something worth giving out awards for.’

David L. Ulin