Where does your inspiration come from?
I suppose because I was not, physically very adept at school, and because I was not musically very adept, the one thing that I felt was my domain was language, and I drew inspiration from it. I loved words, not necessarily the power or the knowledge or even the reason that one could employ them to impart and to generate, but actually the physical texture of words, and the dance words led on the tongue, the way words could be used to seduce, to amuse, to entertain, I'm naturally talking of Wilde- I remember seeing a film of the Importance of Being Earnest, and the character of Algernon saying "Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be the visible personification of absolute perfection?". I was about ten; I remember thinking 'Good God! I did not know that language could do that. That you could do that with words. You could make something so beautiful.' That it was like a dance coming out of the tongue. It was just the most seductive and beautiful thing. So I set myself to the pleasure of language; poetry and reading, and being amused by the sheer rhythms, just the sound of words hitting the tip of the tongue. And so my greatest influences and inspirations were people who used language magisterially and brilliantly, sometimes lightly, like P.G Woodhouse, but with exceptional skill and caused great wonder.
