I never thought of London in terms of possible heroes - of course, there are thousands. It's a very talented city.

The most exciting periods of literature have always been those when the critics were great.

You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.

I do not think writers or anybody would sit down and think they must write about some cause, or theme, or something. If they write about their own experiences, something true is going to emerge.

There's always this sense of incredulity that writers feel, because they're usually living flat and ordinary lives, because they have to.

I wanted to write about my mother as she should have been if she had not been messed up by World War I.

I'm sure that everybody feels a kind of permanent anguish about what's going on in the world.