Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

For you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today I'm happy to have as my guest, Paul Auster, the author most recently of the Book of Illusions.

His first book was the invention of solitude,

a book that I'm crazy about,

and it was followed by the New York trilogy

in the country of last things,

Moon Palace, the Music of Chance,

Leviathan, Mr. Vertigo, Timbuktu.

We've spoken several times. There are books of Chance, Leviathan, Mr. Vertigo, Timbuktu. We've spoken several times. There are books of poetry, translation, nonfiction.

And, you know, I've read all your books now,

and they seem to be always about storytelling

and the making of stories

and the creation of stories in order to

avert other circumstances. Where do you think stories come from? I think stories don't

come from anywhere. I think stories are the fundamental human activity that helps us

define who we are because there would be no coherence to our lives

if we couldn't break down the things that happened to us into narratives. Reality is crashing in

...