'Crucially, it changes the way you behave. This involves being anti-social; the fact you regularly have to go into a room by yourself and not come out.'

Crucially, it changes the way you behave. This involves being anti-social; the fact you regularly have to go into a room by yourself and not come out for hours, in some famous cases, days.

'The novel I believed did not want to be written suddenly wrote itself right to the end in a matter of weeks all because of a few lines I chanced to read.'

The novel I believed did not want to be written suddenly wrote itself right to the end in a matter of weeks all because of a few lines I chanced to read one afternoon in a remote house in Wales.

'Reading the book as a student in Thatcher's London it subtly but perfectly reflected the culture around me. '

Material possessions fail to quell his self-loathing or heal, or avert, the divisions and disasters abundant in his world; reading the book as a student in Thatcher's London it subtly but perfectly reflected the culture around me.

'Like many writers I write best when I care about my characters because if I don't care about them, how will the reader care about them?'

Like many writers I write best when I care about my characters because if I don't care about them, how will the reader care about them?

'I write fast and in short bursts to keep the energy of the prose up, and I write in the mornings when my brain is at its sharpest. '

I try to write at least a thousand words a day. I write fast and in short bursts to keep the energy of the prose up, and I write in the mornings when my brain is at its sharpest.

'You were brave to the point of foolhardiness but put you in front of a keyboard and you were a wee fearty mouse.'

In dangerous parts of the world you were brave to the point of foolhardiness but put you in front of a keyboard and you were a wee fearty mouse; you'd overwork and overhone everything, you'd stay up all night.

'After a man broke into my home and tried to kill me I couldn't read properly for five years. I just couldn't lose myself.'

After a man broke into my home and tried to kill me I couldn't read properly for five years. I just couldn't lose myself; constantly on the alert for sounds, people, danger. I couldn't concentrate.

'I felt that the characters in Tyler's fiction were true to the tips of their fingers, knotted into their world by their relationships.'

I felt that the characters in Tyler's fiction were true to the tips of their fingers, knotted into their world by their relationships and their sprawling dysfunctional families. I believed every word they said.

'Having always been isolated I created imaginative worlds of my own, and I do so still. Oh dear! It all goes back to childhood then?'

Having always been isolated I created imaginative worlds of my own, and I do so still. Oh dear! It all goes back to childhood then?

'I write every day and become captivated by the way the story unfolds. Although as author I am notionally in charge, in fact I write to find what happens next.'

Once I start on a novel I write every day and become captivated by the way the story unfolds. Although as author I am notionally in charge, in fact I write to find what happens next.