However appalling to consider, however tedious to enact, every novel requires furniture, whether it is to be named or unnamed, for the characters will be unable to remain in standing position for the duration of the story.

The world's large enough and interesting enough to take a different approach each time you sit down to write about it.

When I write lyrics, I really do go into an automatic folk appropriation mode... I see the vernacular register of 20th century song as being a bunch of forms to adapt and reconfigure.

Being blocked, being uncertain, sitting there not knowing, waiting, abiding with it: this is the work. If you don't have the tolerance for that you're in great trouble. If you want to call it a writer's block... that doesn't seem a very useful name for that kind of abiding that I think is the essence of the work.

As much as I care about historical context - I'm very eager to read a really great historical account.

I want to write books that can be read a hundred years from now, and readers wouldn't be bogged down by irrelevant details.

It's now expected of me that I will defy expectation, so I really generally seem to be free to write what I want.