I remember hearing how Samuel Beckett actually kept a list of the dozens upon dozens of publishers that turned down his novels, just so as he could be clear in his mind how may of them were wrong about his work, as he knew deep down they were. Beckett of course had extraordinary resilience,…
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I love meeting people when the moment you meet them, there is a connection, a shared sense of humour, and a real warmth. I met a writer from the USA and we immediately connected. Our conversation ranged over many topics, but one in particular stayed with me and lingered in my mind because, well, its…
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One of the things I find next to impossible is self advertisement. The notion of being in any kind of starring role in a reading or event makes me feel as though I am a fraud and that I have managed by force of charm and linguistic legerdemain to deceive either my editors or the…
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Tonight at Saor Ollscoil I listened and participated in a wonderful seminar about the life and the work and the eventual schism between the two philosopher writers Sartre and Camus. Alas my participation was very small indeed so enthralling and brilliant was the main lecturer Sean Oliver, a veritable walking encyclopaedia on the two …
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While I was being interviewed recently for a newspaper, I was asked was there anything I really didn’t want to talk about. I said no, I couldn’t think of anything. The interview was about my writing life, with a particular emphasis on my poetry. The title of my forthcoming book is called Portrait of an…
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Literally dozens of very very bad cop dramas, TV shows, novels, movies, plays, and books write about genius. When I worked on One Inch Punch, a book about a genius, I knew I had to attempt to thoroughly understand my subject properly. I figured that if I didn’t try to grasp what it meant to…
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Since One Inch Punch came out a couple of months ago, I have been very preoccupied with the book itself. Is it good? Was it worth all the time and effort? These are the many egocentric thoughts that preoccupy the mind of a writer who spends all of his time working on literature. Of course…
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The recent demise of Aaron Schwartz once again prompts me to write a brief blog post about depression. We are losing too many highly gifted people to this illness. As well as those who are highly gifted, more than anything, and I cannot over state this, we need to be sensitised to just how serious…
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I have real difficulty seeing what is the cause of the furore around the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty, Katherine Bigelow’s latest movie. Martin Sheen has come out in opposition to it. Naomi Woolf had come out in the Guardian calling Bigelow the latest Leni Riefenstahl, and the torture scenes themselves are rather tame…
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Its difficult if not impossible to pay ones bill if one isn’t getting any bill save a last minute text message threatening disconnection. The arrogance of some billing agencies is astonishing.
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