No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished.

Everything was usual. That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself.

The whole Melrose series is an attempt to tell the truth, and is based on the idea that there is some salutary or liberating power in telling the truth.

Looking after children can be a subtle way of giving up... They become the whole ones, the well ones, the postponement of happiness, the ones who won't drink too much, give up, get divorced, become mentally ill. The part of oneself that's fighting against decay and depression is transferred to guarding them from decay and depression. In the meantime one decays and gets depressed.

Proust is a hero of mine. I read 'A la recherche' in one go, and I'm a very slow reader. It had an astonishing impact, reading it on my own and being my main company. I think Proust is the most intelligent person to ever have written a novel.

The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.

Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument.