Paul Kingsnorth

Here's a thing. I just came across this interview, in the Independent, with a popular beat combo known as Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Actually it's just one guy (with a slightly rubbish name) who I have, despite my advancing age, actually heard of (he was playing a club round the corner from me last week). I should have gone and said hello because, as you will see if you read on, he is apparently inspired by my last book, One No, Many Yeses.

I like it when I hear things like this. One of the fascinating things - and sometimes one of the frustrating things - about being a writer is that you never know quite where your words are going to go, or who they're going to touch. I've had emails in the past from people who read One No and decided to give up their bank jobs as a result. It's inspired plays. I've heard from fans in Korea, Germany and Romania. Recently I got an email from a guy who had been so inspired by the book that he had had the words 'Ya Basta' tattooed on his arm. I was slightly nervous about that one; I just hope he doesn't regret it when he's fifty and hold me responsible.

When you write a book you are responsible for a mass release of words into the world. You never quite know what they will do or who they will reach, but you can be sure that they will have some kind of impact. You may never hear about most of it, but it will be out there, happening, changing things - maybe not in the ways you intended, but changing things nonetheless. All you can do as a writer is sit back and observe and take pleasure from the effects you do see. Hearing about them is what makes the whole enterprise worthwhile.