People ask, “Why do you write?”

It’s a difficult question to answer, and my reply would more be along the lines of, “How can one not write?” rather than a considered reflection on the reasons I write. I just do. I always have.

Calder and I analyse other parts of our writing in depth. Style and method, the how and the what and the when, but seldom the why. Both of us have always told stories, I suspect we always will.

No-one is forced to write. You can always go off and do something else.  Make pots, take up skiing, go out to dinner, read a book.

People write for different reasons. Some people write because they have a story to tell.  Others write because because they see it an easy way to make money.  (Except in rare cases these people soon find it’s not the case, and go off and do something else.)  Most of us write, I suspect, because we can’t imagine not writing.