Gore Vidal | 'What is there to say, finally, except that pain is bad and pleasure ...

'The thing that really really turns me on - and I've now been doing it for 40 years, and it still works in exactly the same way - is this: you are sitting at home reading a manuscript and your hair stands on end and you think, 'I know how to publish this and, with a bit of luck, it could really work.'