I came to writing because I joined the North Clare Writers' Workshop, which met every week at Ennistymon Library.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I took a couple of creative writing classes with Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton University, and in my senior year there, I took a long fiction workshop with Toni Morrison. I fell in love with it.
I took a lot of writing courses.
When I was in middle school, the librarian there was secretary for a couple of groups of professional writers. She introduced me to Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, and I became very friendly with them over a period of two years. Both of them were very generous with their time, guidance and advice.
I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.
I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.
I read, therefore I'm interested in writers.
I really wasn't equipped to be a writer when I left Oxford. But then I set out to learn. I've always had the highest regard for the craft. I've always felt it was work.
I began my writing career in a very isolated place and time.
I worked privately, and sometimes I feel that might be better for poets than the kind of social workshop gathering. My school was the great poets: I read, and I read, and I read.
Suddenly, the idea of writing a book was like coming home. I didn't tell anyone except my wife, Clare. I just began.