'Prince' Q&A with Jonathan Safran Foer '99

Last Friday at nearby Stuart Country Day School, Foer read from his latest book, “Eating Animals,” and discussed the writing process, eliciting laughter, hugs and applause from an enthusiastic audience. Though the publication of “Eating Animals” in November was Foer’s first foray into the genre of nonfiction, he said he believes he will return to fiction in future works. Foer’s past works include the novels “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and “Everything is Illuminated,” which was based on his senior thesis and adapted into a 2005 movie of the same name.

Foer sat down with The Daily Princetonian’s Christina Henricks after the reading to discuss his experiences as a University student and as a writer.

Henricks: What was the creative atmosphere like during your time at Princeton?

Foer: It was very much contained within 185 Nassau Street. When I was there, the campus wasn’t overflowing with creative energy, but I certainly found everything I wanted and needed at 185.

Henricks: Did you think that the atmosphere could have been improved and the University could have done anything?

Foer: I think the creative energy could have been better integrated into campus. Back then, it was really kind of ghettoized in 185. Moving it just physically, having more physical involvement. There wasn’t really much of a dance center, dance program, music facilities. Art wasn’t physically integrated into the campus.

Henricks: Describe your classes with Joyce Carol Oates.

Foer: Joyce Carol Oates and Jeffrey Eugenides both worked with me on my thesis. That became my first novel. I’ve said it a million times, but I just wouldn’t be a writer if I hadn’t met Joyce. She really redirected my life and got me thinking about what writing is, got me thinking about myself — in ways that were just new and revelatory. She got me thinking about what writing is.

Henricks: Do you keep in touch with either of them?

Foer: Yes, I saw them both yesterday.

Henricks: When you were an undergraduate, how did you imagine your future?

Foer: I didn’t envision my future. Maybe I should have spent more time doing so. I thought I might be a psychology major. I ended up being a philosophy major. I thought I might go to med school. I really didn’t know.

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Henricks: Do you find your work fulfilling now? Is it what you were meant to be doing?

Foer: I don’t think there’s anything that anyone’s meant to be doing, but I do find it really very, very fulfilling, if also frustrating.

Henricks: What causes that frustration?

Foer: It just comes from things not moving as quickly as you want them to — not being able to do what you think you should be able to do.

Henricks: How do you deal with criticism now? Did working with Oates help with that?

Foer: Oh, God, she is tough. I mean, honest is a better way to describe it. You just will not survive very long if you worry about criticism too much. Because it’d be crushing if you really believe it, or if you put too much stock in it ... you’ll just be destroyed. I mean, there’d be kids in our creative writing classes who’d be destroyed, who’d cry, who just wouldn’t come back. Part of it is not saying, “I’m right, and they’re all wrong.” Well, nobody’s really right. Even on the great works of literature, people adamantly disagree. So keeping a kind of relative perspective that no one’s right, no one’s wrong. I’m lucky to be doing what I want to do. I hope this person’s idiotic opinion doesn’t make it harder to do what I want to do, but beyond that, I’m not going to worry very much.

Henricks: Who would you list as some of your favorite authors?

Foer: I’d more naturally think about some classical authors, Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, certain poets, Paul Celan, Yehuda Amichai ... People think that writers are inspired by writers. I’m just as often, or maybe even more, inspired by music or the visual arts or dance.

Henricks: You’re promoting your latest book now. After that, what projects do you have in the works?

Foer: Too many plans. That’s the problem. I have a number of things that I would like to try to do, and so it almost becomes evolutionary. Some ideas don’t survive over time, and some do. And in the course of surviving, they end up becoming strange oftentimes. I’ll just see. There are a number of things I’d like to do.

Henricks: Were you satisfied with the film adaptation of “Everything is Illuminated”?

Foer: I don’t know if I would say satisfied, because it wasn’t a question of satisfaction. It just was almost a matter of fact. I wasn’t invested personally in it, I wasn’t invested in the making of it. If it was the greatest movie ever, I would have been pretty happy. If it had been the worst, I don’t think I would’ve gotten too upset. It was neither the best nor the worst. There were things that were nice about it and things I didn’t like about it, but I’m not a filmmaker and I felt ... quite removed from the experience.

Henricks: Do you have any advice for current Princeton students, especially those with creative pursuits?

Foer: Not really. Put your head down and do it, is the only advice. The world doesn’t wait for you to finish your novel. It doesn’t care. You have to want to do it, and do it.