In this short NYT video, John Irving talks about his new novel, Last Night in Twisted River, and reflects on the writing process. He writes longhand--no computer. He always thinks of the last sentence first, and that sentence never changes (he says it's like a musical phrase that the rest of the book works toward). It takes him upwards of a year, usually, to move from that last sentence, which always comes to him whole, to the first sentence, which can move and change a lot.

Your mission: If you do not get the title of this post, read Irving novels until you do. And keep passing the open windows along the way.