The novelist and essayist says it’s not the job of a writer to be an activist – but that writers are always political, and now that is deeply necessary. “Individuals are being turned into micro-fascists by so many means. It is the mobs and vigilantes going and lynching people. So more than ever, the point of the writer is to be unpopular. The point of the writer is to say: ‘I denounce you even if I’m not in the majority.'”