I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

Every novel presents a slice of life. A noir policier for example presents one slice, one that perhaps addresses social dysfunction or some sort of pathology, while mine present a slice that is more upbeat and affirmative.

It is sometimes easier to be happy if you don't know everything.

But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn't it? - and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.

Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.

As a writer, I have readers who will have a range of political views. I don't think they look to me for political guidance.

I think that we've made great moral progress in the second half of the 20th century in many respects, and particularly in relation to human rights but I think that we are losing sight of some of the values of concern for others, and self-respect and respect for others.