Writings on Writing: 

In the postscript to Rachel Joyce's novel Miss Benson's Beetle, "The Photograph That Inspired a Novel," she writes: "The reasons why you choose to tell a certain story are not always clear. I like to compare the first stages of writing to finding a house in the woods that has no windows and no doors. You long to go inside, but you have no idea how, so all you can do is keep circling it, trying to find the tiniest crack."