"The process of writing a novel begins with a pang, a moment of recognition, and a situation, a chara..." — Martin Amis

The process of writing a novel is getting to know more about the novel until you know everything about it. And it's been described as a kind of dreamlike state where you're letting the novel make its own shape, and you're putting into it the pleasure of creation, which is intoxicating.

All novelists write in a different way, but I always write in longhand and then do two versions of typescript on a computer.

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

When I wrote 'The Pregnant Widow' three or four years ago, I tried to reread my first novel, 'The Rachel Papers,' because their young heroes are the same age. I couldn't finish it. It seemed to me so technically slapdash and weak.