How I write: the secret lives of authors

A farewell to arms / Vendela Vida

A squeaky office chair / Jonathan Franzen

Post-it notes / Will Self

The Baths of Diocletian / Alan Hollinghurst

Stövchen / Benjamin Markovits

Jarry's spiral / Tom Robbins

A Maglite / Janine Di Giovanni

A cork wall / Eric Chase Anderson

Kiehl's / JT Le Roy

A large desk / Alain de Botton

Ganesha / Luis J. Rodriguez

A picture from Prague / Gina Ochsner

Chocolate / Douglas Coupland

A blindfolded rhino / Melissa Bank

Simon Wiesenthal and the Simpsons / David Baddiel

Clippity / Lionel Shriver

Through my window / Geoff Dyer

Nicotine / Anthony Bourdain

Unknown keys / Siri Hustvedt

Notebooks thrown across rooms / A.L. Kennedy

Portland Meadows Racetrack / Willy Vlautin

Calace / Louisa Young

People I don't know / Isabel Young

Yerba Maté / James Flint

Oblique strategies / Rick Moody

Hot water / Jane Smiley

Oxford Bar / Ian Rankin

A cabinet of curiosities / A.S. Byatt

Laurence Stern / Adam Thirlwell

Speedball / Natasha Mostert

The pens / Hanif Kureishi

Names / Jonathan Lethem

Driving / David Guterson

Alphabets / Marie Darrieussecq

A body plummeting / Nicole Krauss

In the wee small hours / Neil LaBute

The monkey's jaw / Iain Sinclair

The rituals of tea / Tash Aw

A cypress cone / William Fiennes

The lights of my writing life / Tony D'Souza

.005 / Claire Messud

My grandmother the dancer / Jake Arnott

Walking / Matt Thorne

Krautrock / Michel Faber

Portrait / Joyce Carol Oates

An axe in my hand / Jay McInerney

Money / Tibor Fischer

Cocktails from water and ice / Nick Laird

Nat Love / ZZ Packer

"This childish task" / Javier Marías

Akhenaten / Ahdaf Soueif

Terry's fist / Ronan Bennett

The dogs / Arthur Bradford

Tempus omnia revelat / Bruce Robinson

Earplugs / Nicholson Baker

The importance of my navel / Tim Carvell

A purple pen, a portable home / Elif Shafak

The head of a saint / Audrey Niffenegger

Red and blue notebook / Peter Hobbs

Seahorses / Jill Dawson

Quark / Chip Kidd

"Office" / Caren Beilin

Typewriter / John Byrne

Barricade / Nat Segnit

Rock bottom / Dan Rhodes

Hotel rooms / A.M. Homes

Tobacco / DBC Pierre.