SOURCE: "The City, The Waterworks, and Writing: An Interview with E. L. Doctorow," in Kenyon Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter, 1995, pp. 32-7.

In the following interview, Doctorow discusses his views of The Waterworks and elaborates some ideas on writing fiction.

The author of nine novels—Welcome to Hard Times, Big as Life, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Lives of the Poets, World's Fair, Billy Bathgate, and The Waterworks, as well as a play, Drinks before Dinner, and a collection of essays, Hemingway, Poe and the Constitution—E. L. Doctorow grew up in New York City and was educated at Kenyon College and Columbia University. A recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Arts and Letters Award, and the National Book Award among others, Doctorow teaches creative writing at New York University.

[Tokarczyk:] I've been intrigued by your choices to set so...