I think there is a huge difference between writers who have very big sales, and writers who have small sales. Even writers with very high reputations, even Nobel prize winners, often sell in very low figures.
Kazuo IshiguroโฆItโs hard to appreciate the beauty of a world when one doubts its very validityโฆ.But Iโve long since lost all such doubts, Ono,โ he continued. โWhen I am an old man, when I look back over my life and see I have devoted it to the task of capturing the unique beauty of that world, I believe I will be well satisfied. And no man will make me believe Iโve wasted my time.
Kazuo IshiguroMemory is quite central for me. Part of it is that I like the actual texture of writing through memory.
Kazuo IshiguroI'm interested in memory because it's a filter through which we see our lives, and because it's foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.
Kazuo IshiguroI quizzed him a lot on this point and i suspect the truth was that it was like a lot of things at that age: you don't have any clear reason, you just do it. You do it because you think it might get a laugh, or because you want to see if it'll cause a stir. And when you're asked to explain afterwards, it doesn't seem to make any sense.
Kazuo Ishiguro