I write a ridiculous number of drafts. The characters change and grow through the drafting, and my understanding of them deepens. Creating characters in a novel is like shooting at clay pigeons and missing, and then missing more productively as the narrative continues.
But charity is a very complicated thing. It's important to find an area where you can really help and you can feel the results. Charity is not like feeding pigeons in the square. It is a process that requires professional management.
When I lived in Delhi, I used to visit the Lodhi Gardens and feed the pigeons, crows, and ducks there.
When I was eight or nine, I came to London for the day from Swindon and went to The National Gallery. I remember standing in Trafalgar Square with my best friend Tim, who was covered in pigeons because I put bird seed on his head.
I don't mind being a symbol but I don't want to become a monument. There are monuments all over the Parliament Buildings and I've seen what the pigeons do to them.
I don't eat animals. I rescue strays and take injured pigeons to the wildlife rehab. I carry spiders and wasps outside in a cup covered with a 3x5 card. It would only follow that I'd take pause when contemplating the abrupt and apparently brutal ending of a tiny human being's life, or even a potential human being's life.
[showing Charles one of his window equations]
Nash: This is a group playing touch football. This is a flock of pigeons fighting over bread crumbs. And this is a woman chasing a man who stole her purse.
Charles: John, you watched a mugging. That's weird.
Guido: What kind of place is this? It's beautiful: Pigeons fly, women fall from the sky! I'm moving here!
