What writers have most inspired you?

What writers have most inspired you?

Well, the writers who have inspired me are North American twentieth-century authors, with the exception of Herman Melville, who was nineteenth century. I found, as a Welsh writer, a greater source of inspiration in American authors who were not hampered by issues of social class, in the same way that nineteenth century English writers were. They were more concerned with creating myths and of carving a nation out of their prose. They were very interested in landscape, as I am, and characters who are challenged by the landscape, rather than by climbing up the social scale.