MJ Hyland in anexlusive and revealing interview with Roddy Doyle, published on 8 February
2010 in The Manchester Review
Here’s an extract:
MJH: How has your fame and success impacted on your life as a writer? Has it, perhaps, changed the way you approach your work, or the early impulse or intention behind your work?
RD: I was in India last week, at the Jaipur Literary Festival. I was invited because the work I’ve done has brought success, whatever it is, and fame. So it would be daft for me to claim that fame hasn’t impacted on my life. It has. But when I’m in my office, working – I don’t think it gets in the way. I still feel the same anxiety as I work, the same excitement, the same determination to do as good, as clear, as original a job as I can. I still hate handing over completed work. I still feel the validity of unfinished work crumbling away when I discuss it with anyone. I’ve a novel out in a few months; I’m as excited about it as I recall feeling when my first book was published. I’m about to start a new one; I feel as giddy and as uncertain as I always have been. If I approach work differently, it’s down to experience, I think, not success. Although, that experience – nine novels etc – is probably a reasonable measure of success.