My son jokes with me that he thinks I Google the word 'sad' to come up with book ideas.
With all editing, no matter how sensitive - and I've been very lucky here - I react sulkily at first, but then I settle down and get on with it, and a year later I have my book in my hand.
I really am not affected by the tragic aspects of my books.
Seeing people who are actually reading your book and listening to the wide variety of reactions they have to it, is really special.
After 30 novels, release day is still a thrill. It's always a little bittersweet, too.
Watching an adaptation of your novel can be a violent experience: seeing your old jokes suddenly thrust at you can be alarming. But I started to enjoy 'Money' very quickly, and then I relaxed.
I don't reread my books after they're published, because it's agony.
I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.
I always wince a little bit when I send me to each of my new books. I wince at submitting myself to my father's judgment. But, of course, he's such a fond father that he always writes back, saying it's the greatest thing ever written.
When I am so intensely involved with writing my books I don't like to reread them.
