Possibly he knew, as he wrote this, that he was mad - because inside every madman sits a little sane man saying 'You're mad, you're mad.'

My mother was a great bringer-up of children. My memories are of a sense of security and comfort.

As a novelist, I suppose I can say that I'm highly articulate. But I know, as a person, in other ways, I'm not always articulate. I think we are all, from time to time, inarticulate, at some level, about some things.

All novelists must form their personal pacts in some way with the slowness of their craft. There are some who demand of themselves a 'rate of production,' for whom it's a matter of pride to complete, say, a book every year.

I think what I like to do is to begin with the ordinary and find the extraordinary in it.

How quick and rushing life can sometimes seem, when at the same time it's so slow and sweet and everlasting.

What we wish upon the future is very often the image of some lost, imagined past.