My writing life has included the struggle to bring up three children. What I do three or four times a year is take myself off to a hotel room to unblock a problem.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was writing and I have three kids. I was occupying my time with them but it was difficult.
There are all these things I want to do when I don't have to finish a book. But I have to keep writing because I keep having children.
One of the things that made me try writing novels was I could take time off to be with the kids. That's the practical side of what I love about the writing life.
Each time I write a new piece, whether a novel, a picture book, a speech or anything, really, it has so much to do with what I'm going through personally or a problem I'm trying to work out. When I wrote my novel 'Baby,' my three children had all just gone out the door.
For 10 or 11 years, I had my kids, I wrote four or five books, and I was working all the damn time.
I used to feel that I spent too much of my time in my pajamas doing nothing, and I'd think 'in the time that I don't spend writing, I could raise a family of five.' In a lot of ways, being a writer is lonely and alienating.
My work in books, films and talks lies almost wholly with children, and I have very little time to give to grown-ups.
I wrote every day. I don't think I could have written 'Just Kids' had I not spent all of the 80s developing my craft as a writer.
When I was bringing up a child, I taught myself to write in very short, concentrated bursts. If I had a weekend, or a week, I'd do unbelievable amounts of work.
I have two little children. I didn't want to be missing their childhood while I was away, busy writing about children.