With 'Carousel' I had an idea and it all came out quickly.
From George Murray
I still write the occasional short story, and poked at a novel once, but it's just not what I want to do.
I've often entertained paranoid suspicions about my fridge and what it's been doing to my poetry when I'm not looking, but I never even considered that my fan was thinking about me.
I think, for me, humour needs to be used like a strong spice - sparingly.
In fact, in some ways, I actually feel much more confident about the quality of Carousel than I do about The Cottage Builder's Letter: probably because of its cohesive nature.
A sequence works in a way a collection never can.
Even the people who have had success and made money writing these books of fiction seem to feel the need to pretend it's no big deal, or part of a natural progression from poetry to fiction, but often it's really just about the money, the perceived prestige.
I feel as though I've fooled the world into thinking I'm an adult and now they're letting me procreate.
I guess there is also an element of deliberate change involved. Each of my books has been, at least from my point of view, radically different from the last.
I think the main influence has been living in New York City. Aside from all the crap around 9/11, I find it very demanding to think amid all the noise and visual pollution.
2 perspectives
1 perspectives