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.

All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I'd got somewhere, then I found I had to go on.

I don't talk very well. With writing, you've time to get it right. Also I've found the more I talk the less I write, and if I didn't write no one would want me to talk anyway.

If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.

... 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.

History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.