It's not that I wrote those details, but photos can give you the confidence that you have a real feel for the landscape. Then you can invent with a solid kind of faith, and recreate a feel and flavor of the time, and, one hopes, a tonality, a sense of that time having been lived by those characters.
Chang-Rae LeeYeah, 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.
Chang-Rae LeeImagination might not be limitless. It's still tethered to the universe of what we know.
Chang-Rae LeeA tale, like the universe, they tell us, expands ceaselessly each time you examine it, until thereโs finally no telling exactly where it begins, or ends, or where it places you now.
Chang-Rae LeeHistorical novels are about costumery. I think that's the magic and mystery of fiction. I don't want to write historical fiction but I do want the story to have the feel of history. There's a difference.
Chang-Rae Lee