William Boyd
William Boyd
William Boyd, CBEis a British novelist and screenwriter...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 March 1952
avid consumer contact distance early listen music rock since talk though
Even though I've been an avid consumer of contemporary music since my early teens, the world of rock music has always been at something of a distance - I listen to it, read about it, I talk about it, but I've had little or no contact with its denizens.
human
Human beings are interested in the human condition.
early experience life somehow tap thinking
As a novelist, where do you go to tap into memories, and impressions, and sensations? It's usually, in my experience, your early life, before you started thinking of yourself as a writer, because somehow those experiences are unadulterated.
absolutely bore england fleming however james knew subject
I can bore for England on the subject of James Bond. But I knew I couldn't do it frivolously; I had to take it very seriously, however much fun I was having. And I had to make myself, you know, absolutely steeped in Bond and in Fleming and that world.
living
It is probably no exaggeration to say that she is Britain's preeminent living novelist.
advantage good griffin mistakes took
Griffin is a very good team. We made a lot of mistakes early, and they took advantage of them.
lasts about-yourself knows
The last thing you know about yourself is your effect.
fall hair mad
I have this lock of hair that keeps falling across my forehead. It drives me mad.
suffering film
There is a disconnect between the film Bond and the literary Bond which is their contemporaneity. I don't suffer from that.
thinking retro
I don't think they'll ever make a retro Bond.
thinking veins encounters
Do we change every time we have a new encounter? Are we endlessly mutable? I think these are fascinating questions: it's a rich vein to tap, and I don't think I have exhausted it fully yet.
certain novel
There's a sense in all my novels that nothing is certain.
hard-work artist way
To live as an artist requires hard work or some extraordinary good fortune to come your way.
book successful novel
I know many older writers who were very successful and whose books are now out of print, so you have to go to antiquarian booksellers to buy their fifth or eighth novel or whatever it is.