I Wrote The Novel [room],

So Much As I Enjoy Big Novels Of Epic Sweep, I Often Find, Say, If They Follow Several Generations, By The Third Generation, I'm Not Caring About The People Anymore.

Books Are The Air I Breathe, So I Don't Notice The Seasons.

I Was Highly Aware, In Writing [the Book] Room, That There Are Unsavoury Aspects To Our Interest In Such Cases, And I Thought It Was Rather Honester To Include Discussion Of Media Representation In The Novel Itself Than To Cling To The High Moral Ground By Merely Avoiding Scenes Of Voyeurism, For Instance.

There May Be Certain Genres That Men Dominate, But Fiction Not So Much. The Question Of Prizes Is Tricky Because There Are So Many Prizes.

I Needed To Do A Lot Of Saying No. I Had A Lot Of [interest] From People Who I Just Didn't Think Were Quite Right For It. And I Didn't Want A Bad Film To Be Made Of The Book, Either A Sentimental One Or A Creepy One, So I Did A Lot Of, "no Thank You." Then When The Right Filmmaker Came Along, Yes, I Suppose I Presented Myself Very Much As Wanting To Be The Writer.