You Need the Facts

There’s a journalistic side to writing novels. Because you need the facts. You need the information. You need the details. You have to invent off of something. You can’t invent off of nothing. I can’t, certainly. I have to have real stuff to invent off of. So I need some reality. I’ve got to rub two sticks of reality together to get a fire of reality. 

PHILIP ROTH