Just as chickens brought up in a warehouse...

"Just as chickens brought up in a warehouse and who've never seen the sky still flinch at the silhouette of a hawk, I think humans -- even though we have all of our materialistic telephones and VCRs and whatnot -- still have that circuitry in our heads that makes us flinch and get goosebumps at any hint of real supernatural.

 When I was a kid -- you know you'd be scared of the dark, alone in your room -- I would think, "If I open my eyes and see a face hanging in the air next to the bed, I'm going to expire, I'm just going to die." And it doesn't matter if that face is hostile, or just curious. In the face of the supernatural I think I would just flop down dead. And I do think that sort of thing can be incorporated into contemporary settings. ... And I do think it's especially effective if you do it well in a contemporary setting. I mean, it's one thing to read about a witch stirring a cauldron in medieval Scotland or something -- you sort of say "Oh well, so what?" But if a writer can convince you that there really are ghosts at a drive-in theatre in Palm Springs, it's more immediate, it's more effective."

Interview with Tim Powers, here.