Readers who are hardcore obsessive with no perspective at all probably wouldn't have got much out of my books, because they'd think I was making fun which I was. My next book won't be a novel of obsession. There are people in the world who aren't obsessive and have other things to worry about, and I probably should write about some of them. I'd love to sit down and reread all the Dickens novels every four years. Do the letters and the journalism and everything.
Obsessions are totally situational.
I'm writing a novel about someone who loses his memory. So I'm always asking people about their memories. I had a student who had an accident who lost much of his memory. Watching him from the outside was just so disturbing, so upsetting, and that's what led to the obsession. I think I'm a writer because I have this amazing need to control everything.