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

I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews - so I'm in favour of starving him.

It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation.

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.

Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument.

The first book I fell in love with was 'Little Toot,' the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor.

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.