One of my favorite contemporary authors is Louise Erdrich. She is a member of the Ojibwe nation, Native American. Some of her novels sort of drift into magical realism, and people ask her where she gets her stories. They’re interlocked stories. A character from one novel will appear in another novel. And they’re just so fascinating.

Where do you get these stories?

She said, “At night, the ghosts come to the windows and they scratch on the screens and tell you their stories.”

I think that’s true. It has certainly worked for me, that I’m still and listen in the dark. I hear the stories.