Interview with Writer Paul Vitols (MOVING DAY)

Matthew Toffolo: What is your short story about?

Paul Vitols: It’s about a 5-year-old boy witnessing, without knowing it, the breakup of his family.

2. What genres would you say this story is in?

coming-of-age, memoir, literary

3. How would you describe this story in two words?

sensuous, poignant

4. What movie have you seen the most in your life?

“The Wizard of Oz”

5. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

“Something” by The Beatles (I play it on the guitar)

6. Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

Yes: “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce

7. What motivated you to write this story?

“Moving Day” is part of a collection of vignettes that I am publishing this year under the title “Sparkles on the Inlet: Lyrical Sketches of a Deep Cove Childhood.” I was looking to give literary form to some of my earliest memories, to capture a sense of the magic and pain of that early time of my life.

8. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

The mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

I’m passionate about the true, the good, and the beautiful. This passion has me practicing Buddhism, studying the Great Books, and appreciating art–especially the art of literature.

10. What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

I was intrigued and pleased that someone was willing to produce a video of my story. The cost of entry was low, and the production and the process are making me and my work known to a new audience.

11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”