Discover the times when you're most creative - mornings, nights, afternoons - and clear the time to work then. Many writers find the mornings are best, and the afternoons are only good for editorial corrections, or getting the washing done. Others can only work through the night, drunk.

When I was young, I couldnt imagine women of 60 falling in love. For one thing, people used to stay married; they werent out in the jungle, searching for romance. Besides, these women just looked so ancient - permed hair, beige cardis.

I was never a lonely child who sat looking at the rain sliding down the window.

Whatever you do they will love you; even if they don't love you they are connected to you till you die. You can be boring and tedious with -sisters, whereas you have to put on a good face with friends.

Everything will be alright in the end so if it is not alright it is not the end.

The only real failure is the failure to try, and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment.

Once a character has gelled it's an unmistakable sensation, like an engine starting up within one's body. From then onwards one is driven by this other person, seeing things through their eyes.