What would the ideal sheet of empty paper be? I know which ones I’d like. Kafka’s would be wonderful. As would one of Beckett’s. I’d love an empty page of Bruno Schulz’s. That would mean the world to me. Nietzsche. Rilke. Why not Shakespeare while we’re at it? Or Newton? Or Skarritt? More realistically a sheet from W.G. Sebald would be great.

(if you’ve got nothing but time, this is excerpted from “Emptiness” by J o n a t h a n S a f r a n F o e r

T h e j o y a n d t e r r o r o f t h e b l a n k p a g e , e m p t y a n d i n f i n i t e , s o u r c e o f

a n x i e t y a n d i n s p i r a t i o n f o r a l l w r i t e r s , i n c l u d i n g t h i s o n e .

Here’s the link:
http://www.etherealblue.net/joshua/emptiness.html
(originally published in Playboy, Jan. 2004)