I Don't Believe In Inspiration. I Write

It Is So Much Easier To Deal With The Dead Than With The Living. The Dead Are Out Of The Way, Merely Characters From Stories About The Past, Never Again Unreadable, No Misunderstandings Possible, The Pain Coming From Them Stable And Manageable. Nor Do You Have To Explain Yourself To Them, To Justify The Fact Of Your Life.

I Have Two Homes, Like Someone Who Leaves Their Hometown And/or Parents And Then Establishes A Life Elsewhere. They Might Say That They're Going Home When They Return To See Old Friends Or Parents, But Then They Go Home As Well When They Go To Where They Live Now. Sarajevo Is Home, Chicago Is Home.

I Hate Traveling And Being Away From My Family. But I Like Meeting My Readers, As What I Write Is Actualized In Them. Those Encounters Are Exhilarating To Me.

Every Writer Owes Something To A Particular Tradition He/she Grew Up In. But No Serious Writer - Other Than The Militantly Nationalist Ones - Would Reduce His/her Domain Of Influence To A Single Tradition. Furthermore, Historical Breaks Are So Common And Large In Europe That There Are Ruptures In Every Tradition Which Then Connect The Same Generations Across National Borders. Younger Eastern European Writers, For Instance, Have More In Common With Other Writers Of The Same Age In Europe, Than With The Previous, Communist-era Generations In Their Own Countries.

Sometimes I Don't Write At All. Someone Once Asked Me, "what Do You Do When You're Not Writing?" And I Said, "i Idle."