Mary Karr talks Diet Coke, DFW, and the Birth of Sparkle

Texas’ own Queen of the Memoir, Mary Karr, gives a salty interview to Salon‘s Nina Puro, wherein she disses Augusten Burroughs, dishes on David Foster Wallace, and dismantles certain notions about addiction and romance.

They always say God is in the truth, and I’ve ended loneliness and been able to feel connected by saying who I am and how I feel. I’m sort of comfortable to the degree to which I’m an asshole. It’s not like I’m not an asshole—people know the ways I’m an asshole and it’s within the realm of acceptable asshole-ocity. Part of my drinking and depression was having a voice in my head that was constantly criticizing everybody. I was sort of brought up that way, hypercritical, and I feel like my spiritual practice is a constant correction out of judging everybody else. But I think I’m more critical of myself than anybody, strangely enough, as marvelous as I am.

Now just try to resist reading the whole thing.