WSJ: You’ve described how writing your first novel in the 1960s was a haphazard process, and how later you developed a sort of discipline that became second nature. How have your writing habits evolved in recent years?
Mr. DeLillo: It is just second nature. I don’t even think in terms of discipline. I just set to work. Once the idea takes hold, everything else happens without a sense of self encouragement. It’s automatic, which doesn’t mean it’s not exciting at times — it is, absolutely, to get an idea, to understand a shift in the way of seeing or thinking. And I make notes wherever I am.
WSJ: Do you carry a notebook?
Mr. DeLillo: Oh yes, always. Once when I was working on “Underworld,” I had an idea as I was carrying groceries home and I didn’t have a notebook but I did have a pencil, so I wrote it on the grocery bag.
” This is from a great interview in the Wall Street Journal (via @mattbucher)