“I well know that these soundtracks are generally offered on a track-by-track basis, with analysis and justifications sprinkled in, but alas in this case I’ll be going a bit off the rails as one of my ‘tracks’ is, necessarily a whole album.”
“When you hit a creative wall, singing ‘I’m a reasonable man get off my case, get off my case, get off my case’ is a powerful and convincing coping strategy.”
“‘Breathe Me’ is about feeling worried and generally anxious, about being overwhelmed by your own inner dialogue and potentially doing yourself some harm, then asking for help. I listened to this song on repeat while writing Evil Eye.”
“The Loneliness Files starts from a place of absence and the journey is dissecting those empty spaces, those broken places, and recognizing when a life can be backfilled or repaired.”
“For me, this novel is ultimately a collection of moods set in a woodsy landscape, and these songs all formed the score.”
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“Music was always in the background when I was shaping this novel.”
“If I can be very honest with you, I never pay that much attention to the lyrics of songs, which is kind of ironic considering that I am a woman of letters. I am drawn to atmosphere first and foremost. It is also my approach in writing—rather than plot, I focus on emotions and feelings, the atmosphere of things. I rely on music to help me build this atmosphere.”
“Since the significant action of Pocketful of Poseys begins with the matriarch of the Posey clan hitching up to the legendary Woodstock music festival in August of 1969, any soundtrack of her family narrative would predictably overflow with songs from that epic long weekend.”
“Of course Idlewild has a soundtrack – it’s a novel about theater kids. I suppose it’s a universal tendency, not unique to theater kids, to imagine your life as a movie and yourself as the star. But theater kids are extra annoying about it, because their movie is a musical.”