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"Why am I writing this?"

11 February 2019

‘I never planned to be a writer. It is a very odd way to make a living. Just telling lies...

I do have a visceral sense of breaking through the shell of something when I walk into my study in the morning. Now I just go and do it. Sometimes it doesn't go well, but most often, I'll look up and it's time for lunch and I don't know what happened...

All books have moments when I say. "Why am I writing this?" But now I have written so many I just sort of trust and let it happen. The other nice thing to getting to this age is that I think, well, what if I never finish it? The world will go on without another of my books.'

Anne Tyler, author of 22 novels, including Clock Dance, The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and Back When We Were Grownups in The Times.