‘Helen Dunmore was an established writer, but she revealed how she wasn’t happy about the stories she was writing. I hadn’t heard a writer talk about failure before. She seemed to describe it as an integral part of the journey.’
'What Agatha Christie knew deep down, is that not only is the writer an outsider, but that the act of telling a story requires that outsider-ness to be part of the narration. The classic detective story tends to rely upon the central detective being outside.'
'In modern times, completing your great work is merely the first stop on the journey. As well as agents and editors, you have to negotiate authors' pages on Amazon, build relationships on Good Reads and feed social media accounts.'