Alexander Chee

It took me so long to get interested even in literary biography.

At that point, I did not know that I wanted to be a writer.

At that point, I knew that I liked making things up and getting people to believe it.

I had, as a child at school, I had invented a book report, I remember, thinking like, there's no way my teachers are going to know every book.

So I just tried to see if I could get away with inventing a book report for homework, and I got away with it, and I was like, oh my god, this is amazing.

Yeah.

And I knew I enjoyed playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends and being the dungeon master and being in charge of the adventure, telling the story in a sense, which is part of what you're doing there.

So I knew those things.

But I think that was...

For me, the significance of that essay is that was the first time that I wrote stories for my own pleasure, to amuse myself because I had run out of things to read during my summer in Mexico.

Well, that was a really powerful experience.

The funny thing to me about that summer still is that I wasn't taking any classes.

I was just living in Mexico and having to only speak Spanish.

And because I wasn't taking classes, I spent a lot of time in the home of my host family.

And during the day, the only person who was usually home with me was their housekeeper and their cook.

So I would sit with the cook in the kitchen and watch soap operas, telenovelas.

And that actually turned out to be a great way to learn Spanish.

When there's a story that you want to know and you can't quite know it, everything in you reaches to learn what is being said to you.

And it's also very relaxed because it's TV.

So there's a certain aspect to it where you don't feel like you're studying anything.