Matthew Frye-Castillo

I did see a lot of art, but it was when I was thirteen that we visited the National Gallery together. That was the first time I got to see a Pollock. This very long Pollock, long and narrow. It was a very meaningful experience for me, and I think that shaped the way I think. I wasn’t a writer then. At thirteen, I’d never thought about writing. But the experience of understanding that you cannot take the entire work in at once, yet that there are places you can enter—I still hold onto that. 

Percival Everett, Paris Review Issue 221