It's harder to get hold of the world. It's harder to understand the world, to encompass the literature necessary for the information.

My heroes are people like Philip Levine, who is simply like a god to me, as a writer. And he is a very good man, too.

Oh, a bookshop. Why not pop in and buy a little Kant? And perhaps just a quarter-pound of Kafka. Don't bother to wrap it, thanks. I'll eat it here.

I always write the best that I can. And I won't publish it until I have done it right.

When I am writing a novel I try not to read great prose stylists into which I will fall.

There is a lack of context in contemporary education. And contemporary consideration - because we live in those interiorities so much. Especially young kids who live by surfing the Web.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.