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

The books turn out to be about things afterwards. I don't go into them with concepts, for the most part.

That would be the death of anyone - to recognize false hopes with a certainty. One mustn't know that. If it is offered, refuse!

In searching for a way out of my own troubles, I had found my way into the troubles of others, some long gone, and now I was trying to find my way back out, through their troubles, as if we human beings can ever learn from one another.

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.

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

A person always has a chance to protest this or that.