Louise Glück on the Art of Poetry: “You want a poem to register in every mind the way it did in yours. Then you discover this never happens.”

Yu Hua on the Art of Fiction: “If I’d taken another two or three years to start writing, I’d still be a dentist.”

Prose by Ananda Devi, Fiona McFarlane, and Sean Thor Conroe.

Poetry by Harryette Mullen, Alice Notley, and Farid Matuk.

Art by Marcius Galan and Claudia Keep, and cover by Sarah Charlesworth.

Cover: Sarah Charlesworth, Candle, 2002, cibachrome print, 41 1⁄2 x 31 1⁄2".

The Paris Review is a quarterly English language literary magazine.