Like The Child, The Creative Writing Student

How Can There Be So Many Mothers In The World But So Little Sense Of What It Might Be To Become One?

Leaving Things Behind And Starting Again Is A Way Of Coping With Difficulties. I Learnt Very Early In My Life That I Was Able To Leave A Place And Still Remain Myself.

My Children Are Living, Thinking Human Beings. It Isn't In My Power To Regret Them, For They Belong To Themselves.

I Have No Sense Of A Model Or Predecessor When I Write A Memoir: For Me, The Form Exists As A Method Of Processing Material That Retains Too Many Connections To Life To Be Approached Strictly And Aesthetically. A Memoir Is A Risk, A One-off, A Bastard Child.

The Reaction To 'aftermath' Has Been Far Worse Than To 'a Life's Work,' Yet I Find I'm Perhaps A Little Less Touched By It. In Both Cases, I've Coped Artistically By Believing The Criticisms Weren't Right. They Upset Me, But They Didn't Challenge My Understanding Of How To Write, Nor Of How Morality Functions In Literature.