But it is curious how you can see that an idea is absolutely true and correct and yet not believe it deeply enough to act on it.

I don't believe, in the end, that there is any such thing as no style. Even a very neutral, plain style, one that doesn't use colloquialisms, lyrical flourishes, heavy supplies of metaphor, etc., is a style, and it becomes a writer's characteristic style just as much as a thicker, richer deployment of idiom and vocabulary.

I think the close work I do as a translator pays off in my writing - I'm always searching for multiple ways to say things.

Samuel Johnson Is Indignant:that Scotland has so few trees.

I can talk for a long time only when it's about something boring.

I would recommend, definitely, developing a 'day job' that you like - don't expect to make money writing!

My stories are sometimes closer to poems or meditations, but often there is at least a little narrative in them.