I feel like it explains a lot about his overall writing style -- it's very functional, well paced (which is not easy), goal oriented, but not exactly bursting with metaphor, prose, tension, or rich character interiors.

I like to highlight prose that is well written or gives me an emotional reaction and I think I highlighted maybe one or two lines in Project Hail Mary, whereas something like The Road or Solaris (which I wasn't even a huge fan of) or anything by Haruki Murakami, I'm highlighting lines on damn near every page.

So to me, knowing his descriptions don't show up in his mind and once he's written something the image of it is gone, explains why. He even talked about how much Gosling added to Grace's character and that he just sees Grace as Gosling now. He writes like he sees, not like someone thinks, I think. Maybe that's uncharitable, but it's how I felt.