John Banville caused a right old literary rumpus over the weekend with his assertion in an interview that, “I have not been a good father. No writer is.”
That prompted a terse response from creator of The Wire, David Simon, who tweeted: “Speak for yourself, fucknuts. Family is family. The job is the job.”
Echoing those sentiments, Irish author Julian Gough said in a series of messages: “The second part (of his comment) is factually wrong. Speak for yourself.
“When a famous writer says, ‘All writers are bad parents’, he is giving young writers permission to behave like assholes, and never grow up.
“If you have kids, your first duty is to them. Writing is less important. More important to your ego, perhaps, but so what?”
Lisburn writer of young adult novels, Shirley Ann McMillan, weighs in with: “No, you do not have to be a crap father to be a writer. See also: alcoholism, violence, general knobhead.”