Iain Rowan

‘Those who are wise know all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing.’

‘Beneath this mask, another mask. I will never be finished removing all these faces.’

‘Man is not what he thinks he is but what he hides.’

‘There is in the short story at its most characteristic something we do not find in the novel – an intense awareness of human loneliness.’ 

‘Steer towards the rapids’ 

‘Not consciously, but then "at this point very little is conscious in terms of what it is I’m trying to do. I’ve found a way of disengaging consciously altogether from the process and of following a path, almost like following a trail of breadcrumbs through a wood, of goosebump experiences. I’m just using it as a compass: if the next bit creates

‘His stories are driven by the need to seek out a character’s moment of maximum hurt. Maigret is a device for doing that: he looks for the wound, studies it and (frequently) presses on it.’

‘And, for maybe the first time, it made me feel that the short story form was my form – more in keeping with my true self than a song or a poem or a novel or a movie script or a stand-up routine. That was exciting, that feeling that everything I knew about life or would learn about life could be subjugated to, or put into, that one form. It sort of