This is another thing which I really like investigating in my novels: what is it that makes an intimate society, that makes a society in which moral concern for others will be possible? Part of that I think are manners and ritual. We tried to get rid of manners, we tried to abolish manners in the '60s. Manners were very, very old-fashioned and un-cool. And of course we didn't realise that manners are the building blocks of proper moral relationships between people.

Botswana is actually very peaceful. It's democratic. It never was in debt. They've been fortunate, they've had diamonds.

Talking about pumpkins doesn't make them grow.

I am easily persuaded to continue to have fun.

It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.

The point about love, the essential point, was that we loved what we loved. We did not choose. We just loved.

It's a different sort of love taht puts up with illness. Old love.