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

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

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.

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.

A book can just be a description of a stick being snapped in half. If the reader is brought to feel the plight of the stick, well, you can imagine what that would be like.

I don't think anything needs to happen in a book.

If Americans are to read something that is difficult, they will only do so supposing they will be admired for having done it.