‘It’s very easy to think that when you stop writing – or are forced to stop writing – that you’ll never write anything worth reading again. It is hard to hold on to self-belief, and feels indulgent too, but if everyone felt like this, about all the art they make, where would we be?’

‘But the writing of the novel comes with an utterly different form of concentration, from the first line. I start at that first line, or perhaps a single image, and head on. Inevitably I will go back and chip away at it, again and again, but that's the foundation stone.’

‘“Attend to your sentences,” from the titan that is Leone Ross, whom I consider a lifelong mentor. Every time we speak, she signs off with that instruction, and I think to myself, yes, I can’t do very much about the business-side of writing. The only thing that I can control are my sentences.’

‘That Vehicle especially has almost sold 2000 copies and has been well received shows that trad publishing has low expectations of both literature and readers.’

‘If I’m asked to write a piece about an artist, it’s actually probably less a true profile in the expansive, authoritative sense, but something more compressed: a story focused on them almost as a character — or maybe call it a portrait, an encounter with that artist.’

‘I’m not entirely sure what my creative process is yet. I started Rural at University (Masters in Creative Writing) so there were projects and deadlines, which I know I like to work to. I like a structure. So now I’m starting my next book, I’m feeling a little lost. Maybe I’ll need to pretend I’m doing my Masters again.’

‘I’m a gifted procrastinator, which means I have to get my wife to hide my laptop on writing mornings so I don’t fritter them away online. If I’m researching a project, I try to combine reading and note-taking with experimental fragments of narrative: writing dialogue between characters, say, or bits of description.’