Sebald’s point, it seemed to me, was simple. That precision in writing fiction – especially in writing fiction – is an absolutely fundamental value. He summed up by saying that if you look carefully you can find problems in all writers, or almost all (Kafka being an exception; especially, he told us, if you look at the reports he wrote for the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute!).

from Luke Williams’ essay “A Watch on Each Wrist: Twelve Seminars with W.G. Sebald”, discussed, with excerpts, here.