“To gladden the reader with attractive interweavings of language is not the purpose of creative work. My purpose, when I sit down to a work, is not to gladden anybody, either myself or any other, but to make that work as perfect as possible. Gladness afterwards, when it’s done. … Gladness afterwards – and a lot of it. But a lot of tiredness too. This tiredness of mine when the work is finished is something I honour. It means that there was something to overcome and that the work did not come to me without cost. It means it was worthwhile waging the battle. That same tiredness I honour in the reader. If he is tired from my work, it means he has read well, and read something good. The reader’s tiredness is not devastating, but creative. Co-creative. It does honour to both the reader and me.”