Unrequited Love

The thing that changed my life was when I was very young and met a boy who I thought was extraordinarily beautiful. The rapture of that, and wanting something I could never have, made me start writing. Nabokov thought that unrequited love was part of what writing was - part of a long chase. Martin Amis told me that the desire of being unwanted is also what writing is about. There's revenge in the mix, but yearning makes you become yourself. You never grow out of being obsessed with beauty, whether it's human, natural or literary. That's the thing that motivates me most - I see something beautiful and I want to get it down.

(Thanks Brendan)