The things I carry closest to my heart are things I can't own.

Our house is like an empty cigarette packet, lying around reminding you what's not in it.

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.

But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.

Plot comes first. The plot is the archictecture of your novel. You wouldn't build a house without a plan. If I wrote without a plot, it would just be a pile of bricks. Characters are your servants. They must serve your plot.

Friends, there is nothing like your own family to make you appreciate strangers!

In the long run, most of us spend about fifteen minutes total in the entanglements of passion, and the rest of our days looking back on it, humming the tune.