How writers generate ideas
One of the most common questions I'm asked whenever I give a talk is "How do you generate ideas?" The honest answer is: I don't. Oh, I've tried. Believe me, I have. I've sat at the computer all morning and…
“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion
“You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.” This book has simple sentences like this scattered through it. They’re things you know, but forget. Your loved ones will die, so make the most of the time…
“Death At Intervals” by Jose Saramago
I love the premise of this book. One day, in a particular country, people stop dying. They still get old, get sick, get mangled in car accidents, etc., but they can’t die. At first this news is greeted with elation.…
J.D. Salinger and phonies
The other day, I picked up a copy of The Times because of the news of J.D. Salinger’s death on the cover. I read about Catcher in the Rye and its skewering of “phonies”, and how Salinger retreated to his…
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy
A man dies slowly and in great agony. He ponders the meaning of life, and this increases his anguish: even worse than the physical pain of a slow, lingering death is the spiritual anguish of realising he has wasted his…