In fact, not knowing is a necessary condition of writing for me. I don't know how else to reach something unexpected. I have to be as in the dark as my characters.

In fact, not knowing is a necessary condition of writing for me. I don't know how else to reach something unexpected. I have to be as in the dark as my characters.

Things, very strange things, happen in folktales and there is never much attention given to the whys and wherefores.

I never know where I'm headed when I'm working on a book.

I'm interested in endurance. People persist in the face of the most excruciating hardships.

But every age deserves its fashion and its forms, and no one can control what survives.

Why did people try to shush trouble away as if it were an unruly child?