Every week, the editors of The Paris Review lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine’s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by signing up for the Redux newsletter.

This week, to celebrate the publication of The Writer’s Chapbook, the second volume from Paris Review Editions, we bring you a sampling of writers on writing.

Luisa Valenzuela, The Art of Fiction No. 170 
Issue no. 160 (Winter 2001)

“Women come from the badlands of language. Women know a lot about ambivalence and ambiguity—which is why, I think, good, subtle political writing by women novelists is dismissed in Argentina. Women are expected to console, not disturb the readers.”

“How to Write a Poem,” by Gordon Lish
Issue no. 82 (Winter 1981)

“I tell you, I am no more interested in poetry than the next fellow is. I mean, I can take it or leave it.”

“It’s Called an Ars Poetica, Darling,” by Thomas Healy
Issue no. 158 (Spring–Summer 2001)

“One definition of love
is the grocery list, its
shorthand reckoning

of common needs, peculiar
tastes and settled arguments,
scratches of Morse code … ”

If you like what you read, why not become a subscriber? You’ll get instant access to our entire sixty-five-year archive, not to mention four issues of new interviews, poetry, and fiction.