I learned much about dialogue from Faulkner, especially when we're dealing with our Southern dialects. I learned rhythms from Gertrude Stein, learned to put a complete story in a day from Joyce's Ulysses or Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych."
You have spoken before about how Russian writers influenced you.
Yes, I started out with form from Ivan Turgenyev. I was very much impressed, not only with form but with their use of peasantry. I think serfs are used much more humanely in their fiction than, say, the slaves were used, or the blacks were used, by many of the Southern writers. I remember Tolstoy says, "You just watch a serf, just watch him. He'll never tell you the truth." He says, now if you watch closely, you'll figure out the truth, but boy he's going.....
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