Dave Eggers

And then they would write something far better than whatever they would just imagine, because they're using specific details of actual humans, how they look, what they talk, and also their contradictions.

So there was a street busker that used to play all the time on Valencia Street.

And leather and studs everywhere and boots and, like... And turns out he was, like, he was a Republican and lived with his mom.

And, like, all these things that they found out in minutes from this guy, I was like, that's the contradictions of actual humans.

But you've got to talk to them and you have to observe because they're far more complex than generally what we're just going to come up with from scratch, especially if you're 16 and you've only met nine people in your life, you know?

So...

Being able to just bring a notebook out in public and write a few things down and catch those details.

Yeah, I mean, so I have a...

garage and then the garage i have just dozens of sets of drawers that i bought from like restoration hardware type but much cheaper yeah and each has a piece of paper you know strip of tape that says what that is details conversations or ideas for this book that might never come to be and i usually just write on loose leaf copy paper and that sheet goes into that drawer and

At the end of the day or in the morning after, you know, I'm writing stuff at night, I have to file everything.

And then once that stack is a certain half a foot or so, then maybe you're onto something.

And that, like contrapposto, this book was like 20 years of taking notes.

And finally it was like, all right, it's time to make something of this.

But it can be a burden, too.

You really want to turn off sometimes and not have to listen or remember this thing or, God, that's good.

There are a lot of times that you do have to be like, I've got nothing to write with.

We're going to let this one go.

I can't tether to this responsibility at all times.

Like Susan Sontag said,

I think when she finally stopped writing, she called it like, you know, described this incredible liberation because she was free of the burden of converting her life or what she saw into prose.