I really am not affected by the tragic aspects of my books.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably haven't read them.
I don't reread my books after they're published, because it's agony.
There's more fiction in my life than in books, so I don't bother with them.
When a book goes well, it abandons me. I am the most abandoned writer in the world.
Plot is tremendously important to me: I can't stand books where nothing happens, and I can't imagine ever writing a novel without at least one murder.
Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don't read them that way. I see myself as writing comic books, books about ordinary people trying to live ordinary, dull, happy lives while the world is falling to pieces around them.
The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
It's not as if I've been unlucky. My books have been published and reviewed. I haven't lived through terrible literary suffering!
As a writer, you live in such isolation. It's hard to imagine your book has a life beyond you.
I don't think I've read any of the books that have been written about me.