I don’t think I’ve toned that down at all, as it’s something that interests me. One of the things I have been very criticised for, even in Jack Holmes and His Friend, is being too explicitly sexual. Sometimes it serves as a useful corrective. How do you react to criticism? Do you ignore it or do you take it on board? A couple of my novels are considered real failures. Like every writer I’ve been criticised for some of my work. I think I wrote three or four novels before one was published, so I certainly know what it’s like to write something and not have it be successful or accepted. It’s as though you’re carrying a bucket of water up a hill and you’re not quite sure you’re going to make it.īut you always seem to make it.
But it does seem to me that writing a novel is so precarious. It’s always angst-ridden to write, with some stretches of pleasure. Is the writing process for you pleasurable or angst-ridden? I teach writing, so I have to constantly think about writing problems. Well, a lot of people have said that Jack Holmes and His Friend is my best book, so I guess I’m still writing at the height of my powers.
Foreign Policy & International Relationsĭo you still feel as inspired as a writer today as you did, say, a couple of decades ago?.