Chang-rae Lee: The thing about the plural voice is that, once instituted, you realize there are really no rules about what might limit its point of view.
Ruth Pettus: We went to Paris first. We went to London.
Lee: You’re charting as you go.
Pettus: Not entirely. I had been to her gallery before.
Lee: Narrative doesn’t quite work that way.
•••
Pettus: There was one, the one of Peter receiving the key from Jesus, and behind them there is a group of men in togas in a line.
Lee: And I get this sensation of movement, physical movement, while sitting there in front of my computer.
Pettus: Pouring, brushing and rolling it on. I do get very fatigued.
Lee: There’s uncontaminated food and total security and the means to do whatever one might desire.
Pettus: Yes! As younger girls, we were all about horses and we were able to have our own horses in Australia, but it wasn’t a balm for my wounds.
•••
Lee: It was a fascinating place, certainly not awful, sort of like a prep-school campus that had been allowed to get run-down.
Pettus: I mean, who doesn’t like Rothko? I immediately said yes.
Lee: All perspectives are elastic, but this one can be even more flexible.
Pettus: One of the worst things about this whole terrible thing is if I’m lying in bed, it’s hard for me to hold up books.
Lee: The realms are totally cut off from one another.