"I seem to need two things that are quite unlike each other. One is very tactile and visceral – a..."

“I seem to need two things that are quite unlike each other. One is very tactile and visceral – a sense of time and place. Along with that is something else – very abstract ideas of things that interest me. … The characters come later – the time and the place and the big idea lead to the people, ideally.”

- Jennifer Egan on how she gets her novel ideas at the 2013 New Yorker Festival. Pair with Egan’s 12 favorite books. (via explore-blog)