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b'Sheila Heti is the author of seven books. Her latest is Motherhood: A Novel.\\n\\n\\u201c[My parents] were afraid for me. As anybody who has a kid who wants to be a writer. I think they understood it was a hard life. It was a life in which you wouldn\\u2019t necessarily make enough money. It was a life in which you might be setting yourself up for a great amount of disappointment. My dad\\u2019s father was a painter, so there was in him this idea that it wasn\\u2019t so crazy to him. It wasn\\u2019t so outside his understanding. And, yeah, my mom thought it was a bad idea. And it probably is a bad idea in a lot of ways, but my dad was supportive but also cautioning. I think the book really moved [my mom] and really had an effect on her, so maybe you understand that it\\u2019s not necessarily a frivolous thing to be doing. Maybe it\\u2019s not just playing. I think my mom always had this idea that writing is playing, and it is playing, but it\\u2019s a serious kind of playing.\\u201d\\n\\nThanks to MailChimp, MUBI, and Tripping.com for sponsoring this week\'s episode.\\n\\n\\n@sheilaheti\\n\\n\\nHeti on Longform\\n\\n\\n[01:40] How Should a Person Be?: A Novel from Life (Henry Holt and Co. \\u2022 2012)\\n\\n\\n[01:45] Motherhood: A Novel (Henry Holt and Co. \\u2022 2018)\\n\\n\\n[2:50] Sheila Heti\\u2019s archive at The Believer\\n\\n\\n[07:30] The Middle Stories (McSweeny\\u2019s \\u2022 2012)\\n\\n\\n[07:35] Ticknor (House of Anansi Press \\u2022 2005)\\n\\n\\n[09:10] Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (Jennifer Baichwal \\u2022 Zeitgeist Films \\u2022 2003)\\n\\n\\n[36:50] Emergency Contact (Mary H. K. Choi \\u2022 Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers \\u2022 2018)\\n[42:35] Da Ali G Show (Sacha Baron Cohen \\u2022 Channel 4 \\u2022 2000)\\n\\n\\n[46:00] "Finding Raffi" (New York Magazine \\u2022 Dec 2015)\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices'