"The metaphysics of pleasure in writing, pleasure for extended periods, aren’t easy to unravel. There’s an electrical impulse connected to language and when it takes you into untouristed parts of your consciousness, this can be the deepest writerly pleasure — but it’s not likely to happen except in brief bursts, for a sentence or two, or a short paragraph. Longer-term fun is a function of some mysterious combination of writer, story, characters — the book’s developing form, what it allows you to do and not do, feel and not feel. I think fun has to announce itself."