I have a different purpose in writing each novel. Some of them seem more similar than others, but the purposes are always different.

As far as ideas about book design: I have plenty. But I also try and let people do their jobs.

Americans are genuinely and profoundly anti-intellectual. They are especially so in their pleasure-seeking, which is epically banal.

I'm an elephant today. I will need to have lots of room and also a bowl of water on the floor.

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

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