in skies of deepening blue the moon, heaven's queen was now afloat

If you have to read to cheer yourself up, read biographies of writers who went insane.

Suffering is too strong a word, but writing is serious work. I pull the stuff up from me - it's not as if it's a pleasure.

Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

The problem is once you've written the opening paragraph and worked out how the rest of the story will go in your head, there's nothing in it for you. I write in longhand using disposable fountain pens on the right-hand side of the notebook for the first draft, then I rewrite some of the sentences and paragraphs on the left-hand side.

“One Minus One’”and “Barcelona, 1975” are more or less autobiographical.

Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an idea of peace.