“Putting together this list, like John Prine singing I Remember Everything, works as an act of love. “
“Because writing a book is such a lonely endeavor, I spent a lot of time listening to music…”
“My Playlist of ten of the saddest love songs”
“As in my first novel, Vintage Contemporaries, where the central duo meet-cute over a 25-disc CD changer, Hampton Heights features a great music-technology advance of the late 20th century: the CD boom box.”
“Lily learns a lot about the sensual side of la civilisation française, mostly via cooking and sex, but music is always hovering in the background as another element in her education.”
“When I was writing, I wanted to listen to music that was a mix of different kinds of angry and sad, with longing and miscommunication at the heart.”
“After a year marked by multiple significant losses to disease and suicide, Enclosure Architect was my unapologetic deep-dive into that feeling of community, how it’s cherished and how it’s lost.”
“…occasionally I may hear a song or a piece of music that is so startlingly evocative, and to which I respond so instantly and intensely, that it can spawn an entire story. Or a cascade of images or phrases or sentences.”
“While I don’t listen to music when I write, music enters my mind when I’m not writing, when I’m out there to reimagine the world…”
“As far as sad music goes, Russian folk songs and Appalachian coal mining songs are evenly matched.”