An interview with Will Self

From Guardian Unlimited. Here are some interesting quotes.

I didn't have a favourite book as a child - I never have. I think there's something rather weird about people that do ...

There can be no more thrilling idea of intimacy than connecting with someone through the agency of the written word. Here we meet, on the page, naked and unadorned: shorn of class, race, gender, sexual identity, age and nationality.

(I write) First drafts as early in the morning as possible, then second, then third (retyping, I work on a manual). Once the first draft is 80% completed I start on the second, so that there's a conveyor belt of drafts in progress: this helps me to grasp the totality of the book.

Overall, though, I have a healthy appetite for solitude. If you don't, you have no business being a writer.

Never worry about people stealing your ideas. If you're any good you'll have plenty more - whereas if they have to nick yours they'll never have any of their own, so pity them.

Advice to new writers: Think long and hard about whether this is what you really want to do. A book is published every 40 seconds in the world.

Secret to writing: I think it's like a lot of the creative talents; the talent does have to be there, but it also needs to be cultivated in the right way.

Full story: http://books.guardian.co.uk/whyiwrite/story/0,,2075745,00.html