INTERVIEWER
Do you have any idea how a project is going to end?
DOCTOROW
Not at that point, no. It’s not a terribly rational way to work. It’s hard to explain. I have found one explanation that seems to satisfy people. I tell them it’s like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
E. L. Doctorow, The Art of Fiction No. 94,
Interviewed by George Plimpton, The Paris Review