Reuters interview
In an interview with Reuters O’Hagan talks about the emotional aspect of killing his characters
Yeah man, I get really upset. But when you’re writing a book, a sort of moral arbiter intervenes and makes decisions for you. There’s a quivering hysteric under every paragraph called the author, but a novel isn’t just an authorial will. There’s a moment when you feel characters’ deaths are foretold. If they’re real, then, like all of us, there’s a death in there for them somewhere. And we don’t get to decide entirely how it happens.
And how he is inspired by photography:
Photography takes the appearance of a moment and gives it to the future. It’s the most like our lives. It’s the most like our minds, second by second. Now we have photographic devices on us at all times. That wasn’t always the case. I’d love to read a great novel one day about the selfie.