E.L. Doctorow on Writing

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media; Garrison Keillor):
On writing, Doctorow said: “It’s like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights illuminate, but you can make the whole trip that way, you see.”
And: “When you’re writing a book, you don’t really think about it critically. You don’t want to know too well what you’re doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it. The book is constructed as a conversation, with someone doing most of the talking and someone doing most of the listening.”
He was born on Jan. 6, 1931 in the Bronx.