... Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed potato - one finishes what's on one's plate. That's always been my philosophy.

I'm not "happy" but I'm not unhappy about it.

Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.

No mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts people off.

The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours

I've never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea has none.

I'm all in favour of free expression provided it's kept rigidly under control.