People with children will know this: when the childcare is over, it's over on the dot. You immediately have to go into child mode; there's no down time.
It might be useful to distinguish between pleasure and joy. But maybe everybody does this very easily, all the time, and only I am confused.
It seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpreti...
English writing tends to fall into two categories - the big, baggy epic novel or the fairly controlled, tidy novel. For a long time, I was a fan of the big, baggy novel, but there's definitely an advantage to having a little bit more control.
Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are.
I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.
Books are not brands. Some people are very willing to see themselves as a brand, but you can't be a certain type of writer to a certain type of person all the time. It will kill you.
A child speaks more sense than an adult half of the time.
Dancing for the length of time that I did, it centered me in such a way to be really in tune with my body, and I just feel like I'm physically able to do things because of my ballet background. Without ballet, I don't think I'd look graceful at all o...
Every time an adult is going to write something for a teenager and you don't have, physically, a person who is that, you are always going to be a little off.
Who knows what will happen in five years' time.
When I was a kid, I wanted desperately to be a jazz musician. I would practice the trumpet for hours, but when I got braces, that messed up my ability to play, so all of a sudden I had all this free time.
Had an awesome time. You tell me to show up and all I have to do is drink beer, play guitar all day and I can lift weights and you're going to pay me for this!
Another time I cracked two of the vertebrae in my back and broke a rib.
Only people have been through that miserable time will recall the pass from their deep memory.
That whole environment was just incompatible with my beliefs and my personality. It was a dark time for me.
Take time to be kind and to say 'thank you.'
Time can be an ally or an enemy. What it becomes depends entirely upon you, your goals, and your determination to use every available minute.
There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction that goes with knowing your time, talent and abilities are not being properly used.
