There is a peculiar aesthetic pleasure in constructing the form of a syllabus, or a book of essays, or a course of lectures. Visions and shadows of people and ideas can be arranged and rearranged like stained-glass pieces in a window, or chessmen on a board.

I am a creature of my pen. My pen is the best of me.

I don't only write about English literature; I also write about chaos theory and... ants. I can understand ants.

Good writing is always new.

I do not want to be a relative and passive being, anywhere. I want to live and love and write.

When I was a child - in wartime, pre-television - books were my life.

I don't think it is an easy thing to write and expect to be commercial, even if you are from Venus and a hermaphrodite.