Bustle Book Club
The author ofOn Earth We’re Briefly GorgeousandTime Is a Motherbelieves in taking breaks.
Ocean Vuong considers himself basic.
So while working on hisnew collection,Time Is a Mother, he took their note.
The subject matter he tackles, though, is as vulnerable as ever.
This time, he meditates on his grief over losing her to cancer three years ago.
Putting himself back in that headspace wasnt easy, but Vuong came prepared.
Below, Vuong reflects on his writing routine and other non-doughnut coping mechanisms.
It’s so fascinating because the Japanese didn’t have this idea of homosexuality.
They just did it.
The best way to think is to lay down in the dark and just tend to it.
It could take so much of your energy.
Just leave the desk, lay down, turn off the lights and give a shot to find solutions.
Something in you tells you that you might’t move beyond this point.
You realize that writing is the last part of the imagination.
It’s the residue of the thinking.
So when you step away and think, it’s actually more efficient.
I don’t have any say in the furniture so my desk looks like utter chaos.
There’s sunscreen, cigarettes, money, a nicotine patch.
So I guess that’s technically what my desk looks like.
So I could go into that worm hole for like three hours and just watch them repeatedly.
You learn about this woman who was brutally, terribly murdered in the 80s.
Then last year, they found DNA evidence through Ancestry.com and found her killer.
On his non-doughnut writing snack:
I always love a bowl of fresh raspberries.
They’re tart, soft, and I put them on all five fingers.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
This article was originally published onApril 8, 2022
