Isn't death the boundary we need? Doesn't it give a precious texture to life, a sense of definition? You have to ask yourself whether anything you do in this life would have beauty and meaning without the knowledge you carry of a final line, a border or limit.

If the world is where we hide from ourselves, what do we do when the world is no longer accessible? We invent a false name, invent a destiny, purchase a firearm through the mail.

I've never made an outline for any novel that I've written. Never.

It was only when I found myself writing things I didn't realise I knew that I said, 'I'm a writer now.'

Plot a murder, you're saying. But every plot is a murder in effect. To plot is to die, whether we know it or not.

The question of dying becomes a wise reminder. It cures us of our innocence of the future.

I never wanted to change the world. Norman Mailer wanted to, he set himself the task of changing the consciousness of our age. And I think he came pretty close, in the 1960s, to actually managing to do it. But me? No, no, I never wanted anything like that. I'm not Maileresque.