Inspiration And Dogs

"...when I look at writing I don’t look at other writers. I look toward visual artists or musicians. When you read a writer for inspiration it’s hard not to imitate them, but when you see something visual that inspires it’s easier to imitate because you can make it something your own. Also, I just get more inspiration from the visual arts than I do from writing."

- from an interview with Jonathan Safran Foer, who's also recently written a thought-provoking essay about his life as a dog: "Just about every children’s book in my local bookstore has an animal for its hero. But then, only a few feet away in the cookbook section, just about every cookbook includes recipes for cooking animals. Is there a more illuminating illustration of our paradoxical relationship with the nonhuman world?"