I think it's important to remember where I began. I know that when I talk to other writers, say, writers from the South or writers from abroad, it's where they begin as children that is important to them.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.
I tend to write my beginnings and endings first - as a cartoonist and storyteller, I couldn't sit down every day if I didn't know where the story was headed.
I started writing as a child. But I didn't think of myself actually writing until I was in college. And I had gone to Africa as a sophomore or something - no, maybe junior - and wrote a book of poems. And that was my beginning. I published that book.
As a novelist, where do you go to tap into memories, and impressions, and sensations? It's usually, in my experience, your early life, before you started thinking of yourself as a writer, because somehow those experiences are unadulterated.
I went to an international school in Holland, and I didn't have any memories of growing up in the United States or England or any of these places which other novelists are able to write about in relation to their childhoods.
I was hugely formed by stories I was told as a child whether that was in a book, the cinema, theatre or television and probably television more than any medium is what influenced me as a child and formed my response to literature, story-telling and, therefore, the world around me.
I think the main thing to remember when writing a novel is to stay true to the characters.
Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.
I have grown in my writing and I care about it now and I know how important it is to write stuff.
My early life had a lot to do with my origins as a writer, but I didn't get into doing any writing at all until I was about 35 years old.