Cirrus@Austlit

'In terms of the literary marketplace, my own practice has always been to write the story first, and then to look for a suitable place for publication afterwards. I have never written fiction with a particular magazine or publisher in mind. I have always believed that the writing has its own demands, that the work has to take its own direction and shape and not be deformed by commercial pressures. There are pressures enough without inviting more. Inevitably when we write we are influenced by the context of the society, inevitably there are dangers of shaping the work to conform to the acceptable, inevitably there are the dangers of self-censorship. Once you write for the market you have surrendered unconditionally to those pressures.' (Introduction)