Author David Gordon's chequered past inspires his writing

New York writer David Gordon became a sensation in Japan with the publication of his first novel, 2010's The Serialist : he won three Japanese literary prizes, a feat no other author has accomplished. Mystery Girl , his 2013 sophomore effort, was a complex and dazzling work that prompted writer Rivka Galchen to praise it as "Dashiell Hammett divided by Don DeLillo, to the power of Dostoyevsky". This autumn, he delivers a hilarious and heartbreaking collection of short stories titled White Tiger on Snow Mountain . He talks to about writing, crime, Hong Kong films and celebrity.

I'd say very arguably depending on the day, but I wanted to be a writer before any of that. I decided in second grade I think. I can't remember wanting to be anything else but a writer, astronaut and something like a criminal or a spy. So two out of three. Every other job - and many were much more like messenger, office clerk, survey taker or whatever - was something I did to eat while trying to write. And people would say, "It's experience". Which it is, now. But experience is a bummer while it's happening.

I suppose you'd have to ask that seven-year-old, but at this point it is that blank page. I don't see how I could ever feel like I'm done, or get bored, but at the same time I'm always back at the beginning, learning by trial and error. I feel like I'm just getting started. The book I'm trying to write now is really overwhelming me, and I feel totally lost trying to work it out. But then last night I was moaning to my old friend who told me: "You say that every time."