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.’

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

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

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.

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.