The air is like being wanted, we say, and they nod approvingly. The air is like getting older, they say, and they touch our arms gently.

I often cannot believe the things I do.

How had this happened? Everyone in the world knew more than us, about everything, and this I hated then found hugely comforting.

When you adapt a book, you really have to cut it to the essence.

We are all feeding from each other, all the time, every day.

Writing is a deep-sea dive. You need hours just to get into it: down, down, down. If you're called back to the surface every couple of minutes by an email, you can't ever get back down. I have a great friend who became a Twitterer and he says he hasn't written anything for a year.

It was always difficult to get cattle returned once a marriage was dissolved.