As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now, too late for everything. I would not be given a second chance. In the hours when I woke, I have to tell you that this struck me almost with relief.

I live in words. I like looking at things, but I don't have a strong visual imagination.

I am violently untidy. My desk is overcrowded. I write my first drafts in longhand in a long notebook using a plastic throwaway fountain pen. Then I work on a word processor using a different desk and a different room.

“One Minus One’”and “Barcelona, 1975” are more or less autobiographical.

Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly, and then he died.

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

As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now, too late for everything. I would not be given a second chance. In the hours when I woke, I have to tell you that this struck me almost with relief.