Cormac McCarthy has appeared more on this site than most other writers. And for good reason. But I am going to go back to him one more time in honor of his passing this week at the age of 89.

Though sometimes very long-winded on the page (rarely in a bad way, see Suttree for an example of him at his most wonderfully prolix), McCarthy was a man of few and preferably no words when it came to talking about his craft.

In 2014, some high school students wrangled a quick email interview with the reclusive McCarthy. Asked about his “process” of turning ideas into words on the page, McCarthy said only this:

Writing is very subconscious and the last thing I want to do is think about it…