I was supposed to have a script, and had mislaid it. I was supposed to hear cues, and no longer did. I was meant to know the plot, but all I knew was what I saw: flash pictures in variable sequence, images with no 'meaning' beyond their temporary arrangement, not a movie but a cutting-room experience.

I never had much interest in being a child. As a way of being it seemed flat, failed to engage.

I need an hour alone before dinner, with a drink, to go over what I've done that day. I can't do it late in the afternoon because I'm too close to it. Also, the drink helps. It removes me from the pages.

What you're normally doing as a writer is trying to find the narrative.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live. We live entirely by the impression of a narrative line upon disparate images, the shifting phantasmagoria, which is our actual experience.

It's just a deep pleasure to read something you've written yourself - if and when you like it.

Of course, you always think about how it will be read. I always aim for a reading in one sitting.