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'You only have so much petrol in the tank'

20 June 2016

‘It isn't that I can't take the criticism. What you don't need is to hear yourself explained to yourself, or for any sliver of self-consciousness to come into your writing...

‘The greatest enemy to good art is the router in the hall. I have had conversations with other writers who say their concentration is totally shot by their need to check Twitter...

If you are going to engage with that medium, you have to do it really well. I'm not sure even if I had the time I would really do it. I think you only have so much petrol in the tank. I would rather use my words for something else.'

Maggie O'Farrell, author of This Must Be the Place and The Hand That First Held Mine in the Independent on Sunday