I travel a lot, so by definition I write in many places: cabs, cafes, nearly everywhere. But when I’m in Paris, I work from home. Most of my recent books have been written here, including a large part of the latest one. I continue to write by hand, as I did 20 years ago. For me, there’s a physical dimension of writing that’s too important; I couldn’t write directly on the computer. When I’m working on a book, I write at all times of day, hardly stopping, with just a few hours to sleep. Occasionally, I’ll need to stretch my legs and will tape pieces of paper on the bookshelves and on the window, moving between them and writing a word or phrase on each that I’ll later collect into sentences. Here, I really am cut off from the rest of the world — there’s no phone, no internet, a landline that very few know the number for. It’s a good place to put my body and soul completely into the writing. The process is like heat — I bet my body temperature increases.
