When the babies were very young, I found it difficult to write. I told myself each time that it would be different, I was used to it now, but with every child, for the first four months, I would accomplish nothing.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.
I think probably you can either write for kids, or you can't. That ability to imaginatively be a child and see the world as a child and feel and think like a child - you either have that ability or you don't.
I started writing 'Brick Lane' when my children were two years and five months old. We were on holiday in the north of England when I was overtaken by a compulsion to start writing.
My post-child period resulted in one instant change: I write shorter books for kids.
I write pretty much when I can. I used to be very particular about needing certain conditions for writing, but when I had children, I discovered that I was a lot more flexible than I thought.
I have two little children. I didn't want to be missing their childhood while I was away, busy writing about children.
The level of communication you can achieve with an infant is really profound.
I have a six-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter, so I write when they are at school and pre-school, or when I have a babysitter.
Having an infant is difficult. It's a lot of work, and I didn't hire any help because I overestimated my own abilities.
I never thought about writing. I was married young, I was still in college, as we did then, and I had two babies before I was 25, and I loved them, and I loved taking care of them, but I was a little bit cuckoo, staying at home and not having a creative outlet.