Quote

I'm always drawn to melancholy personalities.

All my work shares a kind of balance between black comedy and sad and despairing melancholy.

I like the contrast in making something that sounds sunny but also has an element of melancholy to it.

I became quite taken over by Johnson's personality at some points while writing the biography, and since I went straight on to The Closed Circle afterwards, I did sometimes feel I could hear him whispering in my ear while I was working on it.

I'm so involved in melancholy.

I'm not writing just about melancholy stuff anymore, I made a point to cover a wide range of emotions.

One doesn't simply write about Lyndon Johnson. You get the Johnson treatment from beyond the grave - arm around you, nose to nose. I should admit that he also reminds me of my father, quite an overbearing and narcissistic character. And in some ways, he reminds me of myself. Another workaholic.

There's a lot of melancholy in my tracks.

I had, in college, a professor called Walter Jackson Bate, and he taught a course called The Age of Johnson. It's about Samuel Johnson and his period, 18th-century British writing. So we all got to endure Samuel Johnson, and Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' is now my favorite book. I read it all the time I can; it's great for going to sleep.

But with writers, there's nothing wrong with melancholy. It's an important color in writing.