But, I think that the reason I responded to this book, sort of paradoxically, is that it starts out like The Big Chill, sort of. Four friends, who are not quite happy with their life, and every year they get together for a week and look for some comf...
I'm not attached to things at all. I'm very lucky to have quite a few beautiful things, but if I look back at my life, I was often happiest when I had very little.
Literary life used to be quite different in Britain in the years I lived there, from 1971 to 1989, because money was not a factor - no one made very much except from U.S. sales and the occasional windfall.
I live in a post-Christian world in Oxford; it is quite rare to meet somebody who is religious in academic life now, and there is absolutely no tendency for rioting and mayhem, and it is extremely civilised.
All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed quite literally to wound other boys, and sometimes very severely.
The older books were quite light-hearted. But I think most of my novels do end on a deep note of pessimism. Shadows seem to be closing in. The final conclusion isn't that life is wonderful and everything is bright and cheery and in the garden.
I think one of the odd things about public life, coming from the outside, is that people seem to be paranoid. Maybe they were quite frank initially, but then they did one thing which went wrong.
My mum was critical in getting me to recognise very early on that although what I was doing was pretty serious, quite selfish, and probably to most people pretty obsessive, there actually was more to life than running quickly twice round a track.
The whole excitement for writing anything is quite intense. And for a day or two, you think you've done everything extremely well. The problems start on the third day, and continues for the rest of your life.
When I was super young, I had an Atari and used to play 'Space Invaders.' Then I fell in love with 'Mario Bros.,' 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and 'Yoshi' on Super Nintendo. I was quite a bit of a gamer as a kid when I think about it.
I actually got a part in 'The Love Guru', that Mike Myers film. I heard it's awful. I got a Razzie award for it, which I'm quite proud of, but I still haven't seen it. I have no plans to branch out.
I love arranging the words and having them fall on the ear the right way, and you know you're not quite there, and you're redoing it and redoing it, and there's a wonderful thrill to it. But it is hard. It's a job of tremendous anxiety for me.
The idea of doing a children's film is different, but quite honestly I like doing anything - any genre. I've only made one Western, which was 'Three Amigos,' but I would love to make a serious Western. I'm just wide open.
I've always been into sports and yoga and running. I actually study a martial arts self-defense program called Krav Maga. I can't quite say it's easy, but it's fun for me and I love to do it.
Sometimes when you film, you can be in a bit of a bubble, and then suddenly when you finish filming, it's taken out of your hands - it's not yours anymore, and we all love it so much that we feel quite protective of it.
It is quite unfortunate that some people hate their lives so much that they have to talk down on others in order to feel good about themselves.
It is quite unfortunate when you think about the amount of money some people spend unnecessarily just to be labeled as being "important" or "relevant" in the public eye.
My life is quite a blissful adventure because my thoughts are constantly working in my favor. I hope yours are not working against you?
These days, I spend more time thanking God for His daily blessings than I do asking Him for more. The spirit of gratitude is quite a great feeling.
There is quite a priceless positive feeling that always arises with knowing that you are constantly giving your dream enough effective strategies and actions that it needs to witness the light of reality.
The length of one's journey to success is quite irrelevant if one has several reasons why the rewards at the very end of it is worth every sacrifice.
