There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms of literary expression. Others say, 'No, no, no. He went to Cambridge. He got a good degree. He must be Einstein.'

When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.

We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.

What we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.

The only way to be happy is to realise how much depends on how you look at things

To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.

I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of scaffolding I erect.