I see the poem or the novel ending with an open door.
I think precision in writing goes hand in hand with not trying to say everything. You try and say two-thirds, so the reader will involve himself or herself.
It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not.
When I began to write novels, I wanted to keep that element of interaction with the reader that exists in poetry, not just for the reader to be shepherded from A to B to C to D but to participate, and the less you say sometimes, the better it is. You know, it's the way when someone speaks very quietly, you move forward so you can listen more carefully.
As someone who writes novels that are often set in other periods of time or other ages or other landscapes, there's a certain element of research I have to do, and often, the more laconic people are, the more interesting they become.
It's a discovery of a story when I write a book, a case of inching ahead on each page and discovering what's beyond in the darkness, beyond where you're writing.
One of the things that happens in novels it's almost like a continual debate with yourself. That's why you're writing the book. It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.
When I write my novels I don't really have a huge plan beforehand; I don't have the whole plot and architecture, so the story is sort of discovered as I write it.
When you're writing, it's as if you're within a kind of closed world.
I see myself as someone who's been saved by writing. God knows what I would have been, become or how I would have ended up without it.
Right now, I have no idea what I will write or if I will write again.
You don't want to write your own opinion, you don't want to just represent yourself, but represent yourself through someone else.
I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out.
To write about someone like myself would be very limiting.
A blind lover, don't know what I love till I write it out
If she were a writer she would collect her pencils and notebooks and favourite cat and write in bed. Strangers and lovers would never get past the locked door.
People don't write about kids; you have to give them a lot of freedom, and that causes anarchy and that causes farce.
There's a lot of thievery involved in writing. You're breaking into other people's spaces and other people's stories.
