The art of the effortless

You do have sleepless nights, but you don’t go on about it. In fact, there’s nothing better when you put a play on the stage than for the audience to think that anybody could do it—that the process is effortless…

Sometimes I spend days without adding a new syllable and sometimes I’m redoing previous work. If it’s a good day I’ll work steadily until I have a break for lunch and then it’s on till five or six o’clock. If there’s nothing I need to do at home I go back upstairs and work till about ten and then I switch off. I never drink alcohol or listen to music when I’m working because I think both those things seduce you into thinking that the feelings engendered by the wine or music are present in your work. I will keep this routine up until I’ve finished a piece of work. This might last for six months, but once the work is done then I can relax and go on holiday. I get terribly frustrated if I have to take a break with something unfinished.

—Willy Russell, to Jim Mulligan