Well, I had no idea that they were really in love until the end. I was writing it so naively. I remember I showed the first couple chapters to someone and they wrote a comment to me back and they were like, ‘McGlue is gay, right?’ And I was like, ‘That’s ridiculous! What a trite way to describe...’ I felt that it was my responsibility to get into... See more

I still felt inspired, and while I work and edit I’m definitely listening to a higher voice that’s outside of my own consciousness, like I’m listening really carefully, so it’s not like I’ve abandoned the spirit world, but I took some more agency and made it more personal, more directly personal.

Then I wrote this new novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation , and it made me insane.

As with all art, whatever I’m working on is influencing my life and my life is influencing what I’m working on. So while I was writing Eileen , my personality shifted and I became... very controlling and oriented toward success.

McGlue was really a creative act of writing through spiritual possession. I mean, I wasn’t intellectualising, I wasn’t thinking about plot. McGlue came out of me like some magical demon. And when that was over it was like, ‘Oh, thank God.’