Mark Leyner on the Art of Being 'Sufficiently Carnivalesque' As part of its 60th anniversary issue, The Paris Review has a great, long interview with Mark Leyner, author of, most recently, "The Sugar-Frosted Nutsack." Here's just one highlight; Leyner on his writing process: I love doing this more than anything in the world, but it's a sort of ghastly war waged against myself. This is how it's done: I bring myself to a pitch of crisis and hysteria, then perfect clarity and resolve about how to proceed, which is accompanied by the most exquisite euphoria and grandiosity, and which is then almost immediately followed by total abject disillusionment and self-loathing. And then it's on to the next sentence! Last March, in conjunction with the initial release of his book, I interviewed Leyner about returning to fiction after a 15-year, self-imposed hiatus to a world that has been, to a certain extent, "Leynerized." A term, and assertion, he strongly refutes in his Paris Review interview. To read the whole interview, conducted by the estimable Sam Lipsyte, himself a writer who's no stranger to the carnivalesque, you'll need to purchase a copy of The Paris Review's 60th anniversary issue. It also features a long interview with the New York literary icon Deborah Eisenberg, a great new poem from Frederick Seidel, and is well worth the investment. If nothing else, you'll look great toting The Paris Review, should you ever wind up in a candid shot on this entertaining Web site.