Laurie Anderson had called to ask if he had a text about fire. She was curating an evening of performances to raise money to build a children's hospital for the charity War Child, and she had an amazing fire video and needed words to go with it. He edited together passages from the 'London's burning' part of The Satanic Verses. Laurie had persuaded Brian Eno to record several loops of sound, which she was going to mix from a little desk in the wings while he read.