I sometimes think that, since I started writing biographies, I've had more of a life in books than I have had in my real life.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I see myself as writing biographies, the complete story of someone's life.
With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.
And then I wrote my first autobiography when I - well, it was 23 years ago. And since then I've written about one book every two years.
Most writers can write three times as many books as I have and still live a life.
As a writer, you live in such isolation. It's hard to imagine your book has a life beyond you.
Each book tends to have its own identity rather than the author's. It speaks from itself rather than you. Each book is unlike the others because you are not bringing the same voice to every book. I think that keeps you alive as a writer.
Most people write a lot of autobiography, but when I came to write autobiography I discovered that nothing interesting had ever happened to me. So I had to take the situation and invent stories to go with it.
'My Life' is not an autobiography. It's just music.
One of the fantastic things about books, fiction or non-fiction, is the way they give you a chance to look into different lives.
I don't think of my books as being biographies. I never had any interest in doing a book just to write the life of a great man. I had zero interest in that. My interest is in power. How power works.