What is the author's style in the collection, Can’t and Won’t?

Lydia Davis's use of language is experimental and are often most likened to a snapshot in time, a captured thought written down. There is little setting, narrative, descriptions, characters that have names, and in many instances, the writing can be considered more a form of prose or unrhymed poetry.

The author, herself, in several interviews has stated that many of the stories are actual meditations that she's had, but to start labeling everything in the collection differently was going to be problematic. Therefore, she opted for the loose term of stories. She also states that she was most influenced by Kafka and the surreal texture of her sentence structures, and the double meanings behind words, the intense and overlapping symbolism, leave little doubt to his influence.