Michael Frayn

Muriel Spark, who says, just start with the title of a book, and then once you've got the title, then start writing.

One of the people who inspired us when we were all reporters on The Manchester Guardian was Howard Spring, who'd been a reporter on The Guardian and became a very successful popular novelist.

And he says in his memoirs, the first novel he wrote, all he had in his head when he started was the first sentence, which was, the woman flamed along the road like a macaw.

So he wrote that down.

And he wrote another sentence to go after that.

That's a great opening line.

Seems so easy.

No, I think I've finished.

I'm writing all bits and pieces, but I don't think they'll ever come together and do anything.

I really think, sadly, it's over.

Well, writing has been my life of one sort or another.

And I've been completely absorbed by it.

And when you're writing something, you can't think about anything else.

You're completely, completely absorbed in it.

It's hard work, of course it's hard work, but it's enjoyable too, and I've enjoyed writing things.

And to find myself without a profession, without this occupation that I've had all my life, is disconcerting.

But I've been rather ill in the last few years, and being ill is a very time-consuming business.

And being old is a very time-consuming business.

They're both less interesting activities than writing.

I don't know.