The Paris Review
@parisreview.bsky.social
Quarterly literary magazine founded in 1953.
https://www.theparisreview.org/
https://theparisreview.substack.com/
https://www.theparisreview.org/
https://theparisreview.substack.com/
Pinned
Our Winter issue is here—featuring interviews with Hélène Cixous and Alice Oswald, prose by Eve Babitz and Gwendoline Riley, poetry by Jana Prikryl and Ed Roberson, art by Joan Jonas and Mieko Meguro, a cover by Adebunmi Gbadebo, and more: ssl.drgnetwork.com/flex/TPR/254/
“A crucial verb for writers is revise. Which means, of course, to re-see.” —Allan Gurganus
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January 12, 2026 at 8:02 PM
“A crucial verb for writers is revise. Which means, of course, to re-see.” —Allan Gurganus
“As much as you can get serious and grief-stricken about what it’s like to be human, there’s something very light about how words just flip over and rhyme, and then kick you in the face.” —Alice Oswald buff.ly/QNsju7Z
January 12, 2026 at 5:04 PM
“As much as you can get serious and grief-stricken about what it’s like to be human, there’s something very light about how words just flip over and rhyme, and then kick you in the face.” —Alice Oswald buff.ly/QNsju7Z
“The proper length for a short story is to go as far as you can without going so far that you have forgotten the beginning.” —Russell Banks
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January 12, 2026 at 3:04 PM
“The proper length for a short story is to go as far as you can without going so far that you have forgotten the beginning.” —Russell Banks
“When it comes to the question of method … You know the Hegel saying—the owl of Minerva flies at dusk. You can’t have ideas about things ahead of time.” —Fredric Jameson
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January 11, 2026 at 8:02 PM
“When it comes to the question of method … You know the Hegel saying—the owl of Minerva flies at dusk. You can’t have ideas about things ahead of time.” —Fredric Jameson
“I think it’s beneficial to not look at oneself, to never think of looking at oneself, because in any case it’s pointless. I recommend it.” —Hélène Cixous buff.ly/zshigS4
January 11, 2026 at 5:02 PM
“I think it’s beneficial to not look at oneself, to never think of looking at oneself, because in any case it’s pointless. I recommend it.” —Hélène Cixous buff.ly/zshigS4
“You inhabit another realm when you are writing a novel. It’s like being in love—being ‘in novel.’” —Luisa Valenzuela
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January 11, 2026 at 3:01 PM
“You inhabit another realm when you are writing a novel. It’s like being in love—being ‘in novel.’” —Luisa Valenzuela
“I can remember the feeling of fear of what would happen if I stopped rhyming—I had no idea what would stabilize the poem.” —Alice Oswald in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/QNsju7Z
January 10, 2026 at 10:00 PM
“I can remember the feeling of fear of what would happen if I stopped rhyming—I had no idea what would stabilize the poem.” —Alice Oswald in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/QNsju7Z
“Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.” —Ernest Hemingway buff.ly/QdbWXTr
January 10, 2026 at 3:01 PM
“Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.” —Ernest Hemingway buff.ly/QdbWXTr
Add literature to your life by signing up for our poetry newsletter to receive an archival poem to your inbox every weekday morning.
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January 9, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Add literature to your life by signing up for our poetry newsletter to receive an archival poem to your inbox every weekday morning.
buff.ly/DE3MOeP
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“I always start out with an idea that becomes a question I don’t have answers to.” —Toni Morrison buff.ly/jTm8XK3
Mary McCarthy, The Art of Fiction No. 27
“Point of view is the problem that everybody’s been up against since Joyce, if not before. I think this technical development has become absolutely killing to the novel.”
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January 9, 2026 at 3:04 PM
“I always start out with an idea that becomes a question I don’t have answers to.” —Toni Morrison buff.ly/jTm8XK3
“I’m unhappy, mostly, when I’m not writing, unless I’ve just written something, in which case I’m euphoric because I don’t have to try and write something again.” —Louise Glück buff.ly/upEJ4lz
January 8, 2026 at 8:03 PM
“I’m unhappy, mostly, when I’m not writing, unless I’ve just written something, in which case I’m euphoric because I don’t have to try and write something again.” —Louise Glück buff.ly/upEJ4lz
“University entrance exams had been reinstated. I failed, twice, and the third year, there was English on the test, so I had no hope of passing. I gave up and went straight into pulling teeth.” —Yu Hua
Yu Hua, The Art of Fiction No. 261
“You live one life of invention and another in reality. As the first grows, the second shrinks—there’s no way around it.”
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January 8, 2026 at 7:02 PM
“University entrance exams had been reinstated. I failed, twice, and the third year, there was English on the test, so I had no hope of passing. I gave up and went straight into pulling teeth.” —Yu Hua
“He didn’t think it was funny when I told him what I wanted (i.e. to be good & beautiful or at least be in a state of grace, for God’s sake) and I didn’t mean it to be funny.”
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
January 8, 2026 at 5:04 PM
“He didn’t think it was funny when I told him what I wanted (i.e. to be good & beautiful or at least be in a state of grace, for God’s sake) and I didn’t mean it to be funny.”
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
“Would I be persuaded by anyone else’s opinion? Fat chance!” —Gordon Lish
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January 8, 2026 at 3:03 PM
“Would I be persuaded by anyone else’s opinion? Fat chance!” —Gordon Lish
Sign up for our Announcements newsletter and we’ll let you know about upcoming issues, launch parties, readings, and more.
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January 7, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Sign up for our Announcements newsletter and we’ll let you know about upcoming issues, launch parties, readings, and more.
buff.ly/DE3MOeP
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“I wish I could write a diary like Virginia Woolf.” buff.ly/B9OTKrO
January 7, 2026 at 5:03 PM
“I wish I could write a diary like Virginia Woolf.” buff.ly/B9OTKrO
“I am for the ones who represent sense, and so was Jane Austen.” —Mary McCarthy
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January 7, 2026 at 3:03 PM
“I am for the ones who represent sense, and so was Jane Austen.” —Mary McCarthy
“Last night I had a good party. It is the only good party I ever gave. I took acid during dinner and was wonderful.”
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
January 6, 2026 at 5:04 PM
“Last night I had a good party. It is the only good party I ever gave. I took acid during dinner and was wonderful.”
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our new Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
“The sentence ‘I wish to be a writer’ would have been the kind of aspirational formula that was really beyond my self-conception.” —Elaine Scarry
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January 6, 2026 at 3:03 PM
“The sentence ‘I wish to be a writer’ would have been the kind of aspirational formula that was really beyond my self-conception.” —Elaine Scarry
“All writing that is strong, alive, is autobiographical. At the same time, everything is invented. Everything Proust wrote has passed through what reality whispered to him.” —Hélène Cixous buff.ly/zshigS4
January 5, 2026 at 10:00 PM
“All writing that is strong, alive, is autobiographical. At the same time, everything is invented. Everything Proust wrote has passed through what reality whispered to him.” —Hélène Cixous buff.ly/zshigS4
Start your day with a dose of literature and sign up for our poetry newsletter to receive an archival poem to your inbox every morning.
buff.ly/DE3MOeP
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January 5, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Start your day with a dose of literature and sign up for our poetry newsletter to receive an archival poem to your inbox every morning.
buff.ly/DE3MOeP
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“I can never go anyplace, walk down any street, do anything alone without some man trying to infringe on my consciousness. They honk horns, say obscene things on the streets, breathe down my neck in movies, say things in the laundry mat.”
buff.ly/B9OTKrO
buff.ly/B9OTKrO
January 5, 2026 at 5:02 PM
“I can never go anyplace, walk down any street, do anything alone without some man trying to infringe on my consciousness. They honk horns, say obscene things on the streets, breathe down my neck in movies, say things in the laundry mat.”
buff.ly/B9OTKrO
buff.ly/B9OTKrO
“I’m dedicated to the factual, and yet one has to have a tremendous capacity for factual and counterfactual thinking to be able to see any truth at all.” —Elaine Scarry
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January 5, 2026 at 3:03 PM
“I’m dedicated to the factual, and yet one has to have a tremendous capacity for factual and counterfactual thinking to be able to see any truth at all.” —Elaine Scarry
“For me, university English was like throwing darts at a dartboard while you were blindfolded in a labyrinth, and I don’t exaggerate this to you.” —Gerald Murnane buff.ly/ssMco1X
January 4, 2026 at 7:01 PM
“For me, university English was like throwing darts at a dartboard while you were blindfolded in a labyrinth, and I don’t exaggerate this to you.” —Gerald Murnane buff.ly/ssMco1X
“I wonder what the neighbors think when they hear ‘Fuck you, pen’ shouted in my apartment. It still isn’t writing well and I’ve a good mind to yell at it some more—there it goes! The threat is working.”
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
January 4, 2026 at 5:01 PM
“I wonder what the neighbors think when they hear ‘Fuck you, pen’ shouted in my apartment. It still isn’t writing well and I’ve a good mind to yell at it some more—there it goes! The threat is working.”
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO
From Eve Babitz’s journal in our Winter issue. buff.ly/B9OTKrO