I Like Novelists Who Can Create Other

I Couldn't Speak Japanese Very Well, Passport Regulations Were Changing, I Felt British And My Future Was In Britain. And It Would Also Make Me Eligible For Literary Awards. But I Still Think I'm Regarded As One Of Their Own In Japan.

I Still Have A Suspicion Of Charity And Think The State Has A Role To Play In Many Areas. And Although For Most Of The Years Since I Have Been A Rather Privileged Writer, I Identify More Closely Than Perhaps I Should With Those Social Workers. Had I Not Become A Writer That Would Have Been Me. Lots Of Our Friends Are Still In That World And I Do Feel Part Of That Generation Of People Who Were Rather Idealistic In The 70s And Became Disillusioned In The 80s. Not Just About Social Services Issues, But The World.

And What Made These Heart-to-hearts Possible--you Might Even Say What Made The Whole Friendship Possible During That Time--was This Understanding We Had That Anything We Told Each Other During These Moments Would Be Treated With Careful Respect: That We'd Honor Confidences, And That No Matter How Much We Rowed, We Wouldn't Use Against Each Other Anything We'd Talked About During Those Sessions.

There's A Practical Problem About Time And Energy, And A More Subtle Problem Of What It Does To A Writer's Head, To Continually Analyze Why They Write, Where It All Comes From, Where It's Going To.

I Was A Little Concerned That A Lot Of People Thought I Wrote Merchant Ivory Movies. I Also Thought If I Was Ever Going To Write Something Strange And Difficult, That Was The Time.