When I am writing, I'm very much on the ground, on the same ground my characters are treading.

When I am writing, I'm very much on the ground, on the same ground my characters are treading.

Of course there are times when I hate London, but equally there are times when I can walk 'round a corner and I really feel that this is my place.

That's the way it is: life inculdes a lot of empty space. We are one-tenth living tissue, nine-tenths water; life is one-tenth Here and Now, nine-tenths a history lesson. For most of the time the Here and Now is neither now nor here.

Novels, in my experience, are slow in coming, and once I've begun them I know I have years rather than months of work ahead of me.

And I didn't know I loved her till I'd dreamt of her. I didn't know it was the real thing until an illusion had signalled it.

Happiness quells thought. And work quells thought.