When I started writing full time I had not long stopped being a teacher and when at last I had a full day to write, I would put music on and wonder to myself – am I allowed to do this? Then I thought: I am control of this and no one is telling me what I can do. – Roddy Doyle
It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance of any possible proof. – John Desmond Bernal, The Origin of Life, 1967
I made a very conscious effort to finish The Cypress House before So Cold the River launched, because I thought that would help build a buffer between my writing and any impact that came from either the success or the failure of that first book. – Michael Koryta
