Charles Ruas: Are you working on a novel now?
Barthelme: Yes. Interestingly, interesting to me anyhow, writing The Dead Father—and this has never happened to me before—told me, if not what, at least how to begin writing the next one.
Judith Sherman: Which is how?
Barthelme: I’m not going to tell you, because it’s a secret.
Sherman: From whom?
Barthelme: From youm.
Barthelme: Yes. Interestingly, interesting to me anyhow, writing The Dead Father—and this has never happened to me before—told me, if not what, at least how to begin writing the next one.
Judith Sherman: Which is how?
Barthelme: I’m not going to tell you, because it’s a secret.
Sherman: From whom?
Barthelme: From youm.
Donald Barthelme, interview with Pacifica Radio, 1975