I find it hard to write anything without sounding like Abraham or a cheap comedian, so I try to visualise a speaking position. For example, I try to write like my conception of Lenny Bruce - not to sound like him, but to speak from where his mouth is in my brain.

In truth I don't know what he sounds like, or what he looks like, and have never heard his material. The name is the thing, and it conveys to me great width and sonorousness. There is a man called Luther Blisset, who used to be a footballer and who represents Lenny Bruce visually for me. Google him, and you will see what I mean.

- I have now Googled Lenny Bruce and it turns out he is in no way like Luther Blisset. He is a white man with partially opaque skin, and he looks very much like the lead singer of Manfred Mann. Lenny Bruce doesn't work for me any more: I will have to try John Steinbeck, who, although I have read his books, looks like a coat hanger. That is weird enough to work for me.