What is the most rewarding aspect of being a novelist vs. directing films?
When I was a girl, I spent a good deal of my time sitting in a deep chair by myself daydreaming. So it turns out, that as a novelist, I get to continue doing this. I love being alone with my imagination. I love being able to control the landscape of my storytelling without regard to any external exigencies. When I write novels, my imagination is only limited by my own inabilities to imagine further, not by budget or studio executives or actors or the crunch of time. Directing film is hugely social and collaborative effort and I often found that aspect of it was at odds with my desire to be very quiet, and to be very internal, to take my time so that I can surprise myself. Most important, I suppose, is that a novelist can focus on the kind of eddies of human emotions that films often don’t have time for. For me, it’s in those eddies, those darkened places, that the drama and excitement of living resides.