A beginning idea for a book might be: a boy emerges from a hole in the ground. He enters a house. The book will take place in the first ten minutes following his arrival.

Three things are required of you: the wishes you made when you first knew the breadth of this life; the contract you signed when you decided your wishes were not true or possible; and the exacting of the punishment you agreed to when you knew you would break the contract of your life.

I have a very basic notion of the structure the book might have - that's mostly it. The rest is luck and happenstance.

We tire differently if we love or love not.

I'd say writing is easier for me now than it once was, but I do less of it.

I don't start with an idea or concept in the sense that I flesh out an idea or concept and set it at the center of something.

One can't say how one behaved or why, really. Such situations, they are far more complex than any either/or proposition. It is simplistic to produce events in pairs and lean them against each other like cards. I suppose if you a playing go or shogi, then such a thing might be helpful, but that is not life.