People were always hungry, bullied, afraid, paranoid - so I just thought I'd show that in the novel in a kind of suffocating way.

At bottom, I'm a cheerful person.

Once I became historically aware, I realized there are these formative moments of history tied around tragedy and disaster and sacrifice, that led people to survive and take stock and move on with some kind of notion of betterment.

People who are suffering have to visualize ways out of tragedy to actually get out of it.

I can't stay engaged for years with a book unless it has feelings. It can't be an idea for me - it has to be a felt thing.

If you created a place in air where they're breathing and running around in, and then they speak in that fictional milieu, it's perfectly authenticated because the whole world relies on you, who've made it possible.

People seem very comfortable having a kind of Cheesecake Factory-type of life.