The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.

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

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.

It is not enough just to identify a problem; there are plenty of people who were very skilled at pointing out what was wrong with the world, but they were not always so adept at working out how these things could be righted.

How many of us are happy to be exactly where we are at any moment?...only the completely happy think that they are in the correct place.

Oh I love gadgets and I pride myself on keeping at the cutting edge of technology.