Anne Tyler

Thursday 13th December 2007

Pulitzer prize-winning author Anne Tyler on what inspires her and why she prizes her privacy

Did you always want to be a writer?
I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a painter. Writing was something I more or less backed into, thanks to the helping hands of high-school teachers and English professors along the way.

Does your work follow a regular pattern every day?
I dread, dread, dread starting, but every weekday of my life I go into my writing room as soon as my morning chores are done, and I write until lunchtime. (The earliest I allow myself to eat lunch is 11.35am.)

Do you have any writing rituals?
I deeply believe in writing by hand. (Sometimes it feels more as if I'm knitting a novel.) I used to have a sort of fetish for Parker fountain pens but then I discovered the new gel pens. They're so frictionless that I don't have to think about them, let alone refill them or give them their ammonia baths, etc, etc. And I like plain white paper – no ruled lines.

Who do you ask to read your books first?
No one sees a word of a book until I send it to my agent, Timothy Seldes. I trust his judgment completely and I depend on him to tell me if publishing would be an embarrassment.

Where do you find your inspiration?
Daydreams, pure and simple. Oh, and sometimes a fragment of a newspaper story that sets up a sort of “What if…?” in my head.

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