If you can't sit in a cafe quietly and be ignored, how can you observe human nature and write a story?
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The kinds of stories I want to be a part of telling are about delving into what it is to be a human being.
I write human stories. I write about people. Not as a product of their environment. But from the stance that everybody is made of the same thing.
Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it's far removed from your situation. This is what I try to tell my students: this is one great thing that literature can do - it can make us identify with situations and people far away.
Each story we approach in the same way, with curiosity and interest and determination to get behind the image.
I'm insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right.
As a writer, I absorb stories, allow them to churn within my own head and heart - often for years - until I find a way of telling them that fits both my time and temperament.
I adopt a very simple approach. I observe and reflect real life and ordinary people and sooner or later that raises a laugh.
Every story I do is about people. It's my survival instinct - one person, one story.
I think you can tell any human story in a particular place.
Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.