Mark Sutz

Why do you write?

what fuels me? hair shooting out of the ears of an otherwise impeccably groomed old man. the smell of a towel that brings me back to a day thirty years ago in glenview with my cousins, a day i otherwise would have never recalled. impossibly small tomatoes, only a bit bigger than pomegranate seeds, which i just bought at trader joes. the simple joy of opening my eyes in the morning knowing despite anything i have another chance to wrestle another sentence onto the page.

i write to have just a little tangible proof i was here yesterday.

Any favorite authors? Books?

many authors, many books. i try to read at least one short story per day, usually more, usually from a literary journal. my full sized bed houses only me now, so where i wish i might find a lover whose breasts leave my sheets smelling lovely, i now have twenty or forty books, which i dip into every day. tonight it might be philip roth or gary taube or le carre or a collection from a writer with whom i have no previous relationship, but whom i hope to fall for after a page or two.