Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.

I think the writer's quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I'd have thought, slightly more risky.

Your whole life is on the other side of the glass. And there is nobody watching.

To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.

You always know when you're going to arrive. If you go by car, you don't. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you in a good mood, I find.

I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.

Of course my standards are out of date! That's why they're called standards.