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

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

I first went to Barcelona in 1975 after university, and I stayed for three years. I learnt Catalan because that's what everyone speaks in the mountains. They speak English to foreigners, but what people say to each other is much more important than what they say to you.

Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an idea of peace.

It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book.

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

in skies of deepening blue the moon, heaven's queen was now afloat