I don’t believe that didactic writing can be really good. If I’m figuring out what I think is going on in the world, and creating a fiction to illustrate that, I don’t feel like really doing what I’m supposed to be doing. When I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I feel like I’m sort of inviting those characters in for a cup of coffee. And if I surrendered control over the process sufficiently, I won’t know what will be there until the narrative closes. And then it will take me a while to figure it out… It’s a very uncomfortable way of working, but it’s the only way I know to write a book… Like if I know where it’s going, it’s dead for me. I can’t do it.
