I had no sense of any reputation that What a Carve Up! might acquire - at the time I didnt even have a publisher, so my main worry was whether it was even going to see the light of day or not.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.

As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you?

But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels.

The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it.

But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.

The more melancholy side of my literary personality is much in tune with BS Johnson's.