Why did Jay McInerney once blow up a lavatory? Why does Peter Handke still mourn the passing of Slobodan Milosević? Why does Michel Houellebecq miss being in a psychiatric hospital? Why doesn't Wole Soyinka want to visit Australia? And what made Elfriede Jelinek afraid of receiving her Nobel Prize? From Ben Naparstek, the editor of The Monthly, comes a collection of interviews with 39 of the world's best writers. In the course of these remarkable encounters, he finds out why - amongst other things - Tony Judt refuses to debate Christopher Hitchens, why Umberto Eco snubbed Stanley Kubrick, why John Malkovich threatened to shoot Robert Fisk, and why James Wood wants to hide behind a pseudonym. In Conversationoffers a series of personal and provocative portraits that illuminate what makes great writers tick.