You Could Say I'd Rewritten The Same

There Comes A Point When You Can More Or Less Count The Number Of Books You're Going To Write Before You Die.

Perhaps There Are Those Who Are Able To Go About Their Lives Unfettered By Such Concerns. But For Those Like Us, Our Fate Is To Face The World As Orphans, Chasing Through Long Years The Shadows Of Vanished Parents. There Is Nothing For It But To Try And See Through Our Missions To The End, As Best We Can, For Until We Do So, We Will Be Permitted No Calm.

There Was Another Life That I Might Have Had, But I Am Having This One.

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.

You Could Say I'd Rewritten The Same Novel Three Times And I Thought I Had To Move On. The Success Of The Book, And Then The Movie, Had By Then Also Created A Commercial Expectation And I Remember Touring America And Seeing People In The Audiences Who I Thought Might Not Want To Read The Books I Wanted To Write Next. My Constituency Had Become Broader, But More Mysterious To Me.