When you move a border, suddenly life changes violently. I write about nationality.

As my life changes, it gives me new things to write about.

Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.

I write about the period 1933-42, and I read books written during those years: books by foreign correspondents of the time, histories of the time written contemporaneously or just afterwards, autobiographies and biographies of people who were there, present-day histories of the period, and novels written during those times.

When you you see no positive change take care of a negative change.

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.