We can skip through a lot of the stuff people might ask about the writing of the book, and so their comments always start well, well down into the nitty-gritty.

The past, as you suggest, is absolutely present at all times and the present is born from the past. I wouldn't want to suggest that the past determines the present.

Yeah, and the language the "we" has, and the character the "we" has. Because that was the part of the book that I didn't plan out, but the part that I was most curious about as I was writing. You know what you're doing, but you're sometimes still sort of curious as you're writing it.

I wanted to write about the Korean War, but I had no entry into it that made the kind of sense it needs to make for a novelist.

Maybe someone's who's a different kind of writer [would think otherwise] - someone who'd be just as comfortable writing essays on what their novels are about. Sometimes you feel like certain novelists are like that.

As for what's the most challenging aspect of teaching, it's convincing younger writers of the importance of reading widely and passionately.

I think that's great - I just try not to be one of those people. I find the more I think about it, the less free I feel when I write and when I work.