Generally speaking, I don’t make notes. I sit down. I write a novel. But already this non-novel that I was refusing to write had generated a drawer full of notes and a shelf of books. I said to myself: my studying days are over. I said to myself: if you let this happen it will play to your worst, your most long-winded, your most Dickensian instincts.
Zadie, just make it up, I'd say. It's a novel, you are allowed to. That's what a novel is. All it has to do is feel true, and you are home free.
Okay, maybe that's the hard part.
