Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.

Here we go again. Always a few drinks, but sometimes even sober, we play the unhappiness game; endlessly round and round. Ding dong. Tighter and tighter. On and on. Push me pull you. Come here and i'll tell you how much i hate you. Hang on a minute while i leave you. All the while we know we are missing the point, whatever the point used to be.

I think young children in the Western middle classes are objects of incredible anxiety.

One of the reasons I write is I like being surprised

There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.

To be able to have the space to sit down and write has always been my central policy.