Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away.

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

In a world without air all you breathe is adventure!

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of themselves - although I am sure that really they were as uncertain as I was.

However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with a contemporary setting, as far as I'm concerned.

I would like people to come into my Dreamworld and then choose to stay.

I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.