First, he says, you have to go out into the world. This is not a simple matter of going outside one's door. No, that is simply going out. That's what one does when one is on the way to the store to buy a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a bottle of wine. When one goes out into the world, one is shedding preconceptions of past paths and ideas of past paths, and trying to move freely through an unsubstantiated and new geography.

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.

I begin with an image of some sort, just as if you saw something out of a window, and then went to the window to see what it was.

I'm clearer now in what I want to say, and I know better how to say just that.

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

I believe in discovering the love that exists and then trying to understand it. Not to invent a love and try to make it exist, but to find what does exist, and then to see what it is.

I like small books. I like durable books. I like plain books. I like small type and thin pages.