Questions for John Crowley

1. The Washington Post Book World commented that Little Big is "... a love story of very great intensity..." However, I take it to be an intense story that involves more sexuality as opposed to love.  What role did you intend for love to play in this book?  Is it a love story or a story that involves sexuality?

2. Do you believe in the Tale?  If not, was it challenging to write a novel so centered around it?

3. In regards to the faeries, why is it that only some people can see them, and those that can see them are not necessarily those that most desire to see into the inner spheres?

4.  Jumping back to the beginning, why did you start of the entire book with Chesterton's quote "Men are men, but Man is a woman"?  Did you intend to make this a book that largely addresses and questions gender roles?

5. On the contents page, it says:

LITTLE, BIG

or,

The Fairies' Parliament

is that an alternate title you came up with?  Does it / how would The Fairies' Parliament fit as a more adequate title of the novel?

6. Do you genuinely believe that the further in you go, the bigger it gets?  Was there something in your world that occurred to cause you to make this realization, or did it just work with the book?  Was this the primary basis when you initially began writing the book?  How did it evolve over the writing period?