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

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.

I don't read books for pleasure, but in desperation.

If he acts, if he doesn't, it's meaningless. The whole thing goes forward. No one is important. No one at all.

…There are times when something is asked of us, and we find we must do it. There is no calculation involved, no measure of the necessity of the thing itself, the action that must be performed. There is simply an acknowledgment that we will do the thing in question, and then the thing is done, often at considerable personal cost. " "What goes into these decisions? What tiny factors, invisible, in the jutting edges of personality and circumstance, contribute to this inevitability?

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