Alexi Zentner

Growing up in Waterloo, the Governor General's Award wasn't something I even thought to wish for.

If you realize early what your influence is, you can have a better understanding of what you are writing about.

To map the Governor General's Award is to map both the past and the future of Canadian literature, and to be nominated for my first book is wonderful.

One of my oldest friends has a cottage on Smoke Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park, and it's one of my favorite places in the world.

For 'The Lobster Kings,' I listened to a lot of Johnny Cash. And it makes its way into the book.

As much as I love my daughters, I wasn't happy with only being a stay-at-home-dad, and my wife encouraged me to try, to really try, at being a writer. More than anything, I didn't want to let her down.

I get very tired of books that feel emotionally empty. I would much rather have writers err on the side of being overly sentimental than not. I think that the perfect balance is a story that moves you without being maudlin, but I don't enjoy books that are empty of emotion and there's no connection to the characters.

If you don't try your hardest, and you're unsuccessful, you always have that excuse.

I liked the idea of being a writer more than I liked the idea of writing.

I had not expected to ever be in a position to able to say, 'Hey, see the magazine with J. Lo on the cover? They reviewed my book inside.'

I grew up reading thrillers, science fiction, fantasy - you name it - and one day I asked myself if there was a reason why a fear of spiders was so common. Was there something buried deep in our evolutionary history that made being scared of spiders a survival instinct?

I'm absolutely terrified of spiders.