I Think It's Quite Difficult

Throughout My Career I've Struggled To Encourage People To Read My Books On A More Metaphorical Level. I'm Less Attached To My Settings Than, For Example, Saul Bellow. The Setting Of A Novel For Me Is Just A Part Of The Technique. I Choose It At The End.

Typically In My Novels The Narrator Tells A Story By Remembering, And The Memories Are Colored By This And Colored By That. So The Whole Universe Of The Novel Tends To Be Framed By The Narrator's Memories And Thoughts.

After All, What Can We Ever Gain In Forever Looking Back And Blaming Ourselves If Our Lives Have Not Turned Out Quite As We Might Have Wished?

Everything Might Scatter. You Might Be Right. I Suppose It's Something We Can't Easily Get Away From. People Need To Feel They Belong. To A Nation, To A Race. Otherwise, Who Knows What Might Happen? This Civilisation Of Ours, Perhaps It'll Just Collapse. And Everything Scatter, As You Put It.

I Still Have A Suspicion Of Charity And Think The State Has A Role To Play In Many Areas. And Although For Most Of The Years Since I Have Been A Rather Privileged Writer, I Identify More Closely Than Perhaps I Should With Those Social Workers. Had I Not Become A Writer That Would Have Been Me. Lots Of Our Friends Are Still In That World And I Do Feel Part Of That Generation Of People Who Were Rather Idealistic In The 70s And Became Disillusioned In The 80s. Not Just About Social Services Issues, But The World.