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(Kuang had included five years worth of backstory.)
Photo: Sela Shiloni
Vogue: Youre primarily known as a screenwriter and director.
What made you want to write a book?
Yulin Kuang:At the time, I was very actively in the weeds onPeople We Meet on Vacation.
I hope they dont like fuck everything up!So I was really, really happy.
But then I also had this moment where I was like, is this why I became an artist?
I, too, wished I had something that was original.
And so I was going to write a feature for myself to direct.
Ive written so many things that the world will never see because they die in development.
They die on the vine.
Did writing a novel feel like more of an independent process than filmmaking or working in TV?
Oh, for sure.
But on the whole, with movies, it takes so many steps to get a movie made.
Youre dealing with so many different things, and different people have different motivations.
When did you find time to write this book?
I was drafting this book while I was doingPeople We Meet on Vacation.
I would wake up, I would work on the novel, and then at about 10 a.m. Tell me more about the inspiration forHow to End a Love Story.
New Jersey is a huge character in the book.
Tell me more about thatyou grew up there, right?
Partially, I did, yes.
So I moved a lot.
I feel like people should romanticize New Jersey a little bit more.
What about New Jersey felt right as a setting for this novel?
I knew I wanted it to be like an East Coast, West Coast kind of culture clash.
And so I wanted to use that geography to separate them a little bit more.
What do you think the two characters see in each other?
Grant compels Helen because he is what she is not capable of.
He is able to move easily in the world.
I always look at people that are just wildly charismatic golden retrievers.
I mean, Emily Henry would be a great example, right?
And I think hes just very good at his job, and competence is always sexy, right?
For Grant, Helen is somebody who knows what she wants, and is very good at getting it.
And so its very flattering when somebody like that wants you.
Nowhere does personality show up more than in the writers room, a huge setting in the novel.
I had a lot of enthusiasm.
I was like,What if we triedthisandthis?
The experience itself was really fun.
Do you think that being the author of a romance book still carries a certain stigma?
And how does that effect you?
Yeah, theres a difference, right?
There is a very interesting tension between whats popular and whats prestige.
There are all these ranges of emotions that you find in the best romances.
I think that thats what makes them art.
And so how does it effect me?
Almost like theyve docked a point before Ive even had a chance to make my pitch for it.
Romance novels of all kinds garner really intense and unique fan bases.
What do you imagine your readership will look like?
I love fan art; I love fan fiction.
Those are the bat signals Im sending out into the world.
Are you drawn to the behind-the-scenes?
Thats who I want.
I want to talk a bit about your upcoming directorial work, and your relationship with Emily.
I never had a chance to organically discover Emily Henry.
I was like, okay, this is a beautiful book.
But that made me more intriguedI like a challenge.
Im sure you guys have gotten close now.
In the beginning I feel like it was a marriage of convenience.
We were kind of thrust together by our industries.
Andoh, my God, sorry, I’m getting a call from my sister.
Shes got a crush on somebody right now.
But our first meeting was over Zoom, and it was kind of like a first date.
I obviously cared a lot that she would want to work with me.
I was trying to present myself as my coolest, funnest self.
I think I can be kind of an intense person.
These are her dorms.
This is her former professor… and I was just like,I feel like Im seeing too much.
I wasnt supposed to go this deep!But somehow, from infinite weirdness a beautiful friendship has sprung.
What I can tell you is that I owe a revision on both of these drafts.
And we are not having those conversations yet.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
How to End a Love Story
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