Anyone who works in the arts knows, if you're writing a novel or a play or anything, you have to be ready for someone to say, 'Your time is up.'

Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a country.

I suppose one should have an integrated personality, but I've never really seen the point.

I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.

John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things.

I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where life was too exciting to write.