What are you doing? You're making an object out of words that purports to be reality, and my goal is to make the object, to make the object whole, to make the object complete… these are ideals… to make the object solid. I don't… I'm not striving for anything else. I have no political ambitions for my books, political agenda. I have no moral agenda. I have no ethical agenda. I'm being driven by the ethic of the novel as a work of art. That's why it's often very peculiar, when the novel is published, to read about it. Because whatever is written, however intelligent it may be, has very little to do with what was driving you. So in a way, what's written about it is none of my business. I once had lunch years and years ago with a baseball player named Keith Hernandez. He used to play first base for the Mets. And so I asked him all the fan questions, and I said, 'Do you read... do you read the sports page the next day?' He said, 'Why should... why should I? I was there. I was playing in the game', you know. Likewise, with the novel... that's my game. I'm playing the game.