John Banville: It’s immensely hard work, but what’s the point of doing easy work? It’s immensely rewarding. It’s immensely infuriating and painful and horrifying at times. I remember when I was doing one of my books and it was giving me a sense of trouble. I sat down in a chair one day. I couldn’t do any more. I actually had a vision of myself writhing in pain on the floor. So it’s terribly, terribly difficult. But you know, anything worthwhile doing is always difficult.