ALT I’m interested in silence at least as much as I’m interested in language. It seems to me a piece of writing is successful if it shapes the silences inside it so that they are resonant and meaningful. In a poem, this may mean the words allow the reader to hear their own deepest questions in the spaces between those words. In a novel, it often means an exploration of what is unsaid, or even unsayable, between characters. I think a piece of writing exists to give the reader their own song, their own story.