As a writer, I'm not convinced that we are the best equipped to understand how we go about the business of literary production.

In our benighted age, when films about amusement park rides and electronic fidgets scoop the honours, perhaps Hollywood redux is the best we can hope for.

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

I do have a fantasy life in which I can grout bathrooms - but not for a living.

Don't look back until you've written an entire draft.

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

I'd rather fiddle with my phone for precious seconds than neglect an apostrophe; I'd rather insert a word laboriously keyed out than resort to predictive texting for a - acceptable to some - synonym.