Quote

It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else.

I'm not the sort of writer who can walk into a party and take a look around, see who's sleeping with whom and go home and write a novel about society. It's not the way I work.

You have your brains, but it's energy and desire that make you write a book.

As a writer, you live in such isolation. It's hard to imagine your book has a life beyond you.

I write novels because there is something I don't understand in reality.

Novelists seem to fall into two distinct categories - those that plan and those that just see where it takes them. I am very much the former category.

I'm a novelist, that's how I make my livelihood, and I concentrate on the novels.

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to think that what you need to write a novel is imagination, creativity and a facility with words. Yes, you need all those things, but a novel is a highly complex organism that needs to be dealt with in quite a logical manner.

The good thing about writing a novel is that you're creating an imaginary world and can take a break when you need to.