The Wall Street Journal has published an interview with Don DeLillo where the reclusivish author discusses the genesis of his new novella, Point Omega. From the interview:
The Wall Street Journal: How did this book evolve?
Don DeLillo: The idea began in the same place where the novel begins — in the sixth floor gallery at the Museum of Modern Art — and at the same time, summer of 2006. I wandered in and there was “24 Hour Psycho,” which I found very interesting to watch and to think about. In fact, I returned two or three times after that, and by the third visit I was fairly certain I wanted to write something about it — the idea of time and motion and the sense of self-conscious seeing, because everything happens in such slow motion and because the imagery is somewhat familiar from the movie itself. I began to wonder about such things, about how we see and what we see, and what we miss seeing when we’re looking at things in a more conventional format. And I decided finally that I wasn’t going to risk writing a piece of nonfiction because I’m not a philosopher or a physicist and I could not study time in the matter that seemed to be warranted. So I placed a character in the gallery and began from there.
The Wall Street Journal seems to be on a streak when it comes to interviewing authors who typically avoid interviews–Cormac McCarthy talked with the financial magazine late last year. Maybe we should scour their archives more closely–who knows, maybe there’s a secret Salinger interview stashed away somewhere.
Said