I think of writing as a sculptural medium. You are not building things. You are removing things, chipping away at language to reveal a living form.

I loathe computers more and more, so I have one I can shut down and shelve like a book.

Lust was a positive high-tension cable, plugged into my core, activating a near-epileptic seizure of conviction that this was the one thing I had to do in life.

A creative life cannot be sustained by approval, any more than it can be destroyed by criticism.

I have a healthy appetite for solitude. If you don't, you have no business being a writer.

I'm very happy for whatever plaudits might come the way of my work, but I never ever sit down to write x with y in view - whether it's a reader, a prize or a sale.

I write because I feel driven to write. I write from a sense of inner necessity. I don't write for anything other than that.