The British and American literary worlds operate in an odd kind of symbiosis: our critics think our contemporary novelists are not the stuff of greatness whereas certain contemporary Americans indubitably are. Their critics often advance the exact opposite: British fiction is cool, American naff.
Will SelfI write as someone who has no more time for repressive Islam than he does for repressive Christianity or Judaism, but at least look at the face in the hijab - and try to imagine the one beneath the niqab - before you depersonalise its wearer.
Will SelfI prefer to write first drafts as soon as possible after waking, so that the oneiric inscape is still present to me.
Will SelfI enjoy doing very high mileages, partly out of masochism and also because I like to feel the shape of the landscape.
Will Self