Which writers or artists most influenced your work?

Originally asked

The Paris Review, to novelists and poets, The Art of Fiction

A durable Art of Fiction question asked through named literary influences and artistic models.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Rashid Johnson said elsewhere, not written here
Growing up, it was the music, the style, it was what you saw, what you read, what you looked at, the vernacular that influenced you the most. I carried that, it was so important to me.

The Talks, published interview, 5 October 2016 source ↗

Others on this question

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Andrew Lloyd Webber Composer of musical theatre
Well, I mean, obviously, as I said, Richard Rodgers, very obviously say, composers like Prokofiev, like Gershwin, all of these, the great musical theater writers. I would add, as melodists, I think if you were talking about the great melodists of the 20th century, I would put Paul McCartney in there. I would definitely put Rodgers. I would definitely put Prokofiev. I’d definitely put Gershwin because he died so young, but definitely would put him there. And those, of course, in the theater side of things, I’d definitely put Hal Prince
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, New York City, 13 September 2019 source ↗
Norman Foster Architect; founder of Foster + Partners and winner of the Pritzker Prize
They were the great architects who have gone before. So they were architects like Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright. Of course, they were alive at the time that I was studying. But there were also, for me, not just buildings.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, London, England, 18 October 2017 source ↗
Sarah Paulson Actor; Emmy and Golden Globe winner
Well, my mom had me at 22 and my sister at 24. When I think about her trying to raise these two young girls in Manhattan, having grown up in an incredibly conservative family and her having a more progressive calling for a more liberal life… It was my mother’s bravery, and my mother’s pursuit of her creative life that made it possible for me to have the one I currently have.
Recorded The Talks, published interview, 30 September 2020 source ↗
Stephen Sondheim Composer and lyricist for the musical theatre
No. Although I have to qualify that. Though he was, by jazz standards, a very square composer, he was, by musical theater standards, a not square composer, and he taught me to be less square. I tend to be square.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Los Angeles, California, 5 July 2005 source ↗

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Adam Gopnik, adrienne maree brown, Amy Tan, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles H. Townes, Clare Smyth

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