Member Spotlight: Robert Kehlmann

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing, like painting and music, is an art form. When well done, they please, captivate, and take readers, viewers, and listeners out of their daily lives–transport them to places they’ve never been and help them see themselves, the people they know, and the world itself in new ways. Today, we definitely need more people opening up to different ways of seeing and thinking about themselves and others who share this planet with them.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Fortunately, that has never been a problem for me. I’ve had a long career as an artist/art critic and only gone back to writing fiction during the past 12 years.When I’m working I’m so immersed in my work that it’s hard to stop. New ideas have always come quickly. I’m 83 years old. There’s no time to sit around pondering what comes next.

What is your favorite time to write? 9 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Focus on reading as a writer. That’s different from reading as a reader. You pay more attention to how sentences are constructed, plot develops, time passes, and how characters are portrayed. Reading becomes more than just a pleasant, engrossing experience. It also a learning process.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? That’s a tough one. I think for me these days writing is an escape from today’s age.

Robert Kehlmann’s The Rabbi’s Suitcase is out now with Koehler Books.