Women often postpone their lives, thinking that if they’re not with a partner then it doesn’t really count. They’re still searching for their prince, in a way. And as much as we don’t discuss that, because it’s too embarrassing and too sad, I think it really does exist.
It’s been such a deep and amazing journey for me, getting close to John Keats, and also I love Shelley and Byron. I mean, the thing about the Romantic poets is that they’ve got the epitaph of romantic posthumously. They all died really young, and Keats, the youngest of them all.
I think that the romantic impulse is in all of us and that sometimes we live it for a short time, but it’s not part of a sensible way of living. It’s a heroic path and it generally ends dangerously. I treasure it in the sense that I believe it’s a path of great courage. It can also be the path of the foolhardy and the compulsive.
Women today are dealing with both their independence and also the fact that their lives are built around finding and satisfying the romantic models we grew up with.
I think that the romantic impulse is in all of us and that sometimes we live it for a short time, but it’s not part of a sensible way of living. It’s a heroic path and it generally ends dangerously.
It’s a luxury to be able to tell a long form story. I love novels, and I love to have a long relationship with characters.
You know, sex is actually not so original as the way people love or the stories behind each relationship, which is what you remember. Sex is sex in the end.
But I think it’s quite clear in my work that my orientation isn’t political or doesn’t come out of modern politics.
As for how criticism of Keats’ poetry relates to criticism of my own work, I’ll leave that for others to decide.