Someone asked me, “Do you write such stark, short books on purpose, or does it just come out that way?”

What I aim at when writing is the antithesis of self-expression. I move towards silence, towards saying nothing, or as close as I can get to an empty page while retaining the story. I know a book is complete when there’s nothing else that can be taken away without losing the story.

Of the books I’ve written so far, I think the ones that have gotten closest to this are...