I had a fear of becoming anything, a fear of becoming a specialist. I might have become a doctor, but if you become a doctor, that's your specialty in life and you are defined by it. One of the attractions of being a writer is that you're never a specialist. Your field is entirely open; your field is the entire human condition.

People die when curiosity goes.

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.

Happiness quells thought. And work quells thought.

What does education do, what does it have to offer, when deprived of its necessary partner, the future, and face instead with - no future at all?

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

I share my name with an aerobatic bird that can whiz across a whole summer sky in seconds. A swift is so equipped for speed that it can scarcely cope with being stationary.