To Write Has To Be Related To

A Particular Piece Of Music Attaches Itself To The Piece I'm Writing, And There Is Nothing Else I Can Listen To. Every Day I Return To The Same Space To Write, The Music Providing Both The Walls And The Pictures On The Walls.

The Way I Think Of My Work Is That I Have To Think Up The Way To Tell A Story, Starting From Scratch. The Changes In The Industry Concern Me In A General Way Because I Think Civilization Is Doomed.

There's No Bad Writing; You Did Something. I Was Operating Inside Language, And I Did Something. I'm Not Ashamed Of It.

Every Writer Owes Something To A Particular Tradition He/she Grew Up In. But No Serious Writer - Other Than The Militantly Nationalist Ones - Would Reduce His/her Domain Of Influence To A Single Tradition. Furthermore, Historical Breaks Are So Common And Large In Europe That There Are Ruptures In Every Tradition Which Then Connect The Same Generations Across National Borders. Younger Eastern European Writers, For Instance, Have More In Common With Other Writers Of The Same Age In Europe, Than With The Previous, Communist-era Generations In Their Own Countries.

I'm Bright, But There Are Lots Of Bright Writers And People Everywhere. In No Way, At No Point Do I Think I'm Better Than Them.