Maybe There Is A Beast…

Don't Get Me Wrong. I Have Nothing Against This As A Method, But It Is Not What English Writers Do.

They Accepted The Pleasures Of Morning, The Bright Sun, The Whelming Sea And Sweet Air, As A Time When Play Was Good And Life So Full That Hope Was Not Necessary And Therefore Forgotten.

Malcolm Bradbury Made The Point, And I Don't Know Whether It's A Valid One Or Not, That The Real English At The Moment Is Not The English Spoken In England Or In America Or Even In Canada Or Australia Or New Zealand. The Real English Is The English Which Is A Second Language, So That It's Rather Like Latin In The Days Of The Roman Empire When People Had Their Own Languages, But Had Latin In Order To Communicate.

I Began To Write When I Was Seven, And I Have Been Writing Off And On Ever Since. It Is Still Off And On. You Can Say That When I Am On, When I Know I Have A Book Which I Am Going To Write, Then I Write Two Thousand Words A Day. That's So Many Pages Longhand.

Every Novel Is A Biography. Well, Then, This Is A Novel [the Paper Men] Which Is A Biography That Is Pretending To Be An Autobiography. That's What You Could Say About It.