Although I never became a professional musician, music has always been an important part of my life, and has influenced my writing also, in both its style and its subject matter, though this was never a conscious aim. Music can portray and define emotion more clearly than words, and has the capacity to unite and reconcile, to bring resolution. Music also in certain ways provides metaphors for everyday life.

Some aspects of my writing style have also been influenced by music. A musical phrase or movement proceeds by a combination of repetition and extension, and I use the repetition of words and phrases perhaps more than is usual. Also, the sound and rhythm of my sentences, their length and punctuation, accords with the way I hear them in my mind’s ear as well as with the basic demands of meaning and grammar.