I always felt like a misfit in school. I never felt right. I once saw my friend slapped while attending a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps course and I was totally against it. Why did they have to use violence? I eventually dropped out in grade 11.

My parents didn’t want me to give up my education. They persuaded me to study through an alternative course and I became a pre-med student at Mahidol University in the late 80s.

I didn’t want to spend my life as a doctor. I would study for a year then drop out for a year. It was like that for 10 years before I decided to quit for good.

My parents were really disappointed. We were a lower middle class family so they had high hopes for me. They thought I had thrown away my future. I was pretty lost.

I always loved reading and wanted to be a writer. I had already had some stuff published in magazines before I quit university. I’ve been a full-time writer ever since.

You can’t survive as a writer here if your book isn’t a bestseller. I used to get paid B1,000 for a short story 20 years ago, and it’s pretty much the same rate today. It’s hard to be just a writer. Luckily, I had the chance to become a partner with some friends who opened the Taksura pubs around town. My wife also supports me.

Maintaining the highest quality is the hardest thing. It’s easy to get published but keeping a consistent quality is a challenge. Many writers give up on their career because they can’t find ways to keep improving.

It’s daunting to think how I can do better after winning [the SEA Write Award].

It’s sad that writers who have so much to communicate to society are ignored. It’s good that more Thai people are reading, but truth is we’re in short supply of both serious readers and creative writers. Readers just love Korean sci-fi fantasies or Japanese horror stories.

Writing is like breathing. Nothing can stop me from writing.

Traveling is a good way to find inspiration. I really love India; it’s a land of contrasts. There are lots of billionaires yet millions of people are still sleeping on the streets. The people are highly spiritual. I’ve taken so much inspiration from India.

Being a writer isn’t glamorous. We are poorly paid and rarely accepted. Competition is high.

A writer’s status is even lower than a farmer’s. If I say I’m a writer, I can’t prove that I really am because I have no well-known books. At least farmers have their land to prove who they really are.

It really hurt to be branded a plagiarizer when I released my short story “Vela Luang Pan U Mong” in 2008. It’s true that I took inspiration from [Australian author Peter Carey’s short story] “Peeling”. It was my fault that I didn’t credit him.

The SEA Write Award isn’t a lifetime achievement or moral award. It’s not fair that my past faults should overshadow my whole career as a writer.

No matter what you’re facing, keep writing. I put my all into writing Khon Khrae (Dwarf) to prove myself. And I finally did it.

The idea behind Khon Khrae comes from my real-life experience. I once met a dwarf on the streets of Bangkok. He had come from the country with the dream of becoming an actor, but his neighbor had instilled him with the fear that he would be abducted by strangers to do road shows.

I loved writing this story in a way where readers can’t guess how it will end, and the suspense means they have to read it in just one sitting.

Winning the award is a distraction. It’s good that it might boost my book sales and make it easier to talk to publishers, but the whole frenzy has destroyed my concentration. I hope that when the dusts settle, everything will go back to how it used to be. I’ll be releasing my new book, Ma Hua Khon [Human Headed Dog], this month.

I love to live in isolation. I only got a mobile phone after winning the award. I prefer to rely on my email and home phone.

Writing with the aim of winning an award will cloud your natural decision-making ability. Just write what you want.

I love running. I don’t believe that I’m more special than anyone else, but I know that I’m tougher. Running reminds me to believe in my ability to do anything. I love the endorphin rush of running. It helped me quit smoking, too.

My wife is my first editor. I always tell her what I am writing about and I like to ask her opinion on it. I love that she loves reading, traveling and the arts like me.

Everyone needs love. Even if you have everything in life, what you need most is love—to love others and be loved.

I have faith in humanity. I always write about the dark side of humans, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have high hopes for us. This world is meaningless without us humans.