The writer has to take risks and go somewhere full of mystery and possibility for the novel to deepen over the years it takes to write it.

That was one of the reasons I became a writer - I never really had that many friends. I would read a lot, and listen to music. And that was my life.

Getting an audience requires luck as well as talent. Some artists are private and shy. It costs them too much.

Your memories from your early childhood seem to have such purchase on your emotions. They are so concrete.

Each character requires different language, and these issues become inseparable. You have all these balls in the air: language, character, narrative. For me, the primary focus must be words, sentences, paragraphs.

Usually there is a paradox in what a character wants. A conflict is built deeply within them. And then you put them in motion, throw everything at them until they reveal themselves further.

A good novel should be deeply unsettling - its satisfactions should come from its authenticity and its formal coherence. We must feel something crucial is at stake.