You can only give things up once they start to let you down.

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

I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in.

It seems people spend the majority of their lives believing they're dying, with the only consolation being that at one point they get to be right.

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.

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.

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