The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone.

The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone.

Writing a novel is an act of self-annihilation as much as self-discovery. You can kill whole appetites and flood whole depths while plumbing them, but if you are serious about it you also get to put something into the world that wasn't quite there before.

It's not a crime not to know yourself. It's not a crime to send life away. It's just a shame.

A living museum must surely see itself as a locus of argument. A breathing art institution is not a lockup but a moveable feast.

Always trust strangers, it's the people you know that let you down.

I was 10 when I realised I couldn't stand football. I'd tried, obviously, before this - no one wants to give in to social pariah-hood without a fight. I had stood frozen on pitches, done some running about and shouted a lot, as though I cared.