"What is the actual origin of a book?" "A character in a particular landscape."

Link to an exhaustive three-hour interview with Samuel R. Delany from 1983, covering:

sex, power & slavery in Nevèrÿon; perceptual metaphors, the symbols of "sanity" & involution as structural motif in Dhalgren; and Delany's three-stage writing process / writing as endless revision / editing purely to carve out space.  "Everything starts with character & landscape..."

Additional:  2018 interview with Delany discussing his novella 'The Aetheist In The Attic'.