Nobody would ever accuse Mark Helprin of avoiding the big topics. His better novels (Winter’s Tale, Refiner’s Fire) rope in war time, global adventure, and magic realism, all of it written in grand leaping prose.

But when he talks about his inspiration for writing, he talks instead about going smaller:

We create nothing new — no one has ever imagined a new color — so what you are doing is revitalizing. You are remembering, then combining, altering. Artists who think they’re creating new worlds are simply creating tiny versions of this world…