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'You realise you do it because you want to'

22 October 2012

 'You sort of rebel when you sit down (to write). You feel anger and boredom and the stupidity of what you are doing. It's like my dad's making me go to work, or my kids asking "Who invented homework?" Then you quieten down and become interested. You realise you do it because you want to. It is the waste of time that makes it possible...


As you get older, you want economy. I don't want to start writing now and maybe publish in five years. Salman (Rushdie) does that. I can't bear it. I want to say it, throw it away and write something else.'


Hanif Kureishi in The Independent on Sunday