I love poetry, read it a lot, but make no claim to being able to write it.

The idea that language can be recombined to create new forms, new things, is of course very old in poetry.

There's some evidence that before events of mass trauma, even unpredictable ones, people begin to feel higher anxiety, often expressed in terms specific to the event.

Paranoia can be a sign of a sanity in some circumstances, in some places and times.

We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.

We're getting used to reality and fantasy passing into each other. Much of the border between them has been erased.

Novels seem to exist because of this need to know and connect, and so story becomes charged with necessity.