Solitary Confinement: Ray Banks

Name: Ray Banks

Where do you write? Can you write when traveling?

I have a room that I call an office. And I'm too busy watching movies on planes or reading books on trains to bother with writing. Pfft. Stupid writing.

Can you work with music or the tv on?

Always music, never television. Talking voices are difficult to tune out. And the music has to be live. I have a hobo I pay to sing and dance. He's quite good. He sounds like James Taylor. If James Taylor looked at your cat like it was dinner. I call him Alf.

What are the five things you must have when you’re working?

Must have? A computer. Otherwise, it's just like having: coffee, water. A chair. A roof. Eyes. Eyes help. Fingers. A pair of lungs in order to facilitate breathing, which I've heard is important. An arse.

What’s the strangest place you’ve ever been when struck by a flash of inspiration and started scribbling notes down for a story idea?

If I'm in a strange place, the last thing I'm thinking about is the fucking book. I'm thinking, "How do I get out of this straaaaange place? And why is that dog looking at me like that? And why are my legs itching?"

Ray Banks is the author of SATURDAY'S CHILD, DONKEY PUNCH and NO MORE HEROES. He has taken the lie detector and also speculated on how he'd spend his last hours on death row.