. >> no, i finish things and then i realize they're hopeless and jepget jetsonned. don't know if you've read mr. and mrs. bridge. these are amazing books. i had in mind to write a paired book like that. i thought it would come out at the same time and then whatever. then i realized about halfway into the process because of pi amazing agent that, no, in fact, i was writing a marriage in book form and they're autonomous people within the marriage within this one unit. >> rose: how did you start. writing? >> rose: no, this book. did you start with an idea or a question? >> it started with other books and i think a lot of my work starts with other books and i sort of go from there. >> rose: you're a thief. we're all thieves. we're all nasty thieves. actually, i was writing my previous book "arcadia" at the time, and the experience of writing that was almost like ripping out my own heart and feeding it to myself every day, it was so painful. >> rose: you have a very good imagination. ripping out my heart and feeding it to myself. >> it was horrible. ke i had to write tha