Martin Reed

Why do you write?

If I figure that out I'll be cured and won't need to write. For now, I'm enjoying the compulsion.

Any favorite authors? Books?

I don't have favourite authors as such. I read quite a range, from literary to experimental to science fiction to classical. I suppose what's more pertinent are the authors with whose styles I identify most closely. They're far from 'favourite' because reading them can be annoying. It gets in the way of my writing. Not the act of reading, but I start reading them and their fantastic voices knock my own voice askew and I end up trying to ape them. Too many 'I wish I'd written that' moments. There's nothing favourite about that. Bastards. A few examples of these literary distractors...

Haruki Murakami, Hanif Kureshi, Ali Smith, Charles Dickens, Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver, Iain (M) Banks, George Orwell, James Kelman.

In a parallel universe, they sit in irritation at my voice, trying to ape it, in vain.