People wonder how they are ever going to change their lives, but really it is frighteningly easy.

If I can't write it would be as if I died.

However long the moon disappears, someday it must shine again.

It is easier for a rich person to act on their principles than it is for someone with fewer choices (which is why it is all the more disappointing when a wealthy person plays to the crowd).

Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.

At this point in time the war [ WWII] is close enough to still feel hotly personal to a writer, yet far enough away so that jingoism and heroics are no longer required.

They say that in the hour before an earthquake the clouds hang leaden in the sky, the winds slows to a hot breath, and the birds fall quiet in the trees of the town square. Yes but these are the same portents that precede lunchtime, frankly.