The funny thing about history is that we imagine that people didn't laugh in the old days, but of course they did, at stupid things.
Language leads a double life - and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence, you consult menus and shopping lists, you observe road signs, and so on. Then you enter your study, where language exists in quite another form - as the stuff of patterned ar
I don't think my principles change. I think the way in which you apply those principles to modern society changes.

