I respond to the sound of London being spoken - to the sound of London.

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.

I can do hieroglyphics in the margin. There are days when I really enjoy the flow of ink. I mean, nice pen, ink straight on to the page.

My upbringing was absolutely not the archetypal writer's upbringing. Even, arguably, the opposite.

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

The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extraordinary things. To use the language that we all use and to make amazing things occur.

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