Books Begin from the Simplest Things

E.L. Doctorow writes books that can be described as many things, but seldom as simple. Yet he’s the first to admit that the ideas for his novels can often be seeded from the simplest of things.

“An image, sound, idea,” he elaborated. “You explore it and see where it goes. It’s not a rational thing, to write a book.”

He wrote City of God, for example, when he saw the image of a cross on the top of a synagogue.

“A novel, among other things, is a mixture of opinions.” Popular opinion is that Doctorow’s books are well worth reading.

See what Salon had to say about Doctorow’s City of God at the link below.

http://archive.salon.com/books/review/2000/02/18/doctorow/index.html