David Mitchell called the project "quite liberating, because I won't be around to take the consequences of this being good, or bad ..."[4] He completed the work at 1:00 a.m. on the day he left for Norway[5] (May 24, 2016)[4] hours before getting on a plane to go to the induction ceremony where about 100 people had gathered on Saturday, May 28.
[6] Commenting on the substance of the book, Mitchell has said only, "it's somewhat more substantial a thing than I was expecting" and that the final one-third of the novel is not as "polished" as the first two-thirds.
[7] Mitchell called the process "very pure" and also added that "by entering the pact of the project, you're predicating your decision on the belief that there still will be readers, there still will be books, there still will be trees".
[9] While writing the book, Mitchell mused to himself, "imagine this gets stolen and leaked on the internet in five years' time.
"[2] Remarking on the process of writing the book, Mitchell said he did not have to worry about copyright: "I can quote a Beatles song if I want to.