Max Porter

It's just great.

I feel wonderful.

But doesn't that mean you know... I was an editorial director at Granter Books in the UK, and I published narrative non-fiction, writers you'd all know and love, I hope, like...

Rebecca Solnit, Masha Gessen, who I know has been to the Sydney Writers' Festival.

And then I published literature and translation a lot, because I feel very strongly about that.

Because the world only works if we listen to each other and talk to each other and read each other's work.

And it's very dangerous when you only read inside your own national or racial or social box.

So to me, translated literature is a very handy way of fixing many of the most serious problems we face in the world.

And also, frankly, it's usually more interesting than English novels.

Say again?

Yeah, I did love my job.

It does seem weird to give it up, yeah.

And I'm not dealing very well with being self-employed because it turns out I need structure.

My wife is like, you can have a cup of coffee.

People have coffee in the world.

And I'm like, I can't.

I have to work.

And if I have a cup of coffee, I have to write a story about that and sell it.

Yeah, that's been broached.

But I really like to chat when the kids come home.