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

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.

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 That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself.

I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it?

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

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

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