My characters are constant companions both before and during the writing of a novel. I take them around with me pretty well everywhere I go. Once the book is written, some of them will have had their say and I am happy to part company with them. But others stay
This much I know: Dame Fiona Kidman

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Writer Dame Fiona Kidman. Photo / Robert Cross
Ian and I will have been married for 56 years next Saturday. The shared pleasure in family is a factor, as are commitment and a sense of humour. We realised quite early that we each had dreams that would take determination to fulfil them and the freedom to pursue them. We followed our own paths but they always converged.
I can't speak for all readers, but to some extent I think very long books have had their day. We tend to seek variety and to want to move on to new sets of ideas before long. But I wouldn't have missed the Dickens experience, nor the years in my teens when I was enamoured with the Russians. That dramatic sweep of great events and eras was what storytelling was all about. Perhaps we owe it to ourselves to focus more on long texts. Will I read Barkskins [Annie Proulx's new novel]? It's got 714 pages. I'm thinking about it.
I broke a pact I made to myself. It was to be unfailingly true to myself. We all make false moves now and then. You pick yourself up and start again.
All Day at the Movies, by Fiona Kidman (Vintage, $38). Dame Fiona Kidman will speak at Remuera Library, Auckland, on September 13.