Larry McCaffery interviews Diane Johnson in her house in Berkeley. They begin with a discussion of her writing habits and how she begins her novels. Johnson explains that what interests her in her writing is form. Johnson discusses her views on being considered a “woman writer.” Johnson discusses her views on the characters in her novels. Johnson discusses the influence of California on her writing. They discuss the portrayal of relationships in Johnson’s novels. Johnson discusses her then forthcoming biography of Dashiell Hammett. Johnson discusses, in-depth, her novel The Shadow Knows. Much of the last half-hour of the interview concerns Johnson’s work as the screenwriter for The Shining. An edited version of the interview appears on pages 199 to 218 of Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists, ed. Tom LeClair and Larry McCaffery, University of Illinois Press, 1983.
