Certainly, I know what it's like to be obsessed. I haven't always been there for my children. They could reach me, but I wasn't always there. But, you know, that's not necessarily anything to do with being a writer. I mean, a taxi driver could have the same problem... Maybe.

For me Oliver Twist is a political novel. It is a furious critique of the treatment of orphans and poor children who were forced to spend their early lives in ghastly institutions.

I know paradise has many gates, just as hell does. One has to learn to distinguish between them, or one is lost.

Dreams can be of value even if you don’t have an opportunity to turn them into reality.

Novels are . . . an unsurpassed form to understand people.

The stories I create are never as awful as reality.

Have I ever written anything that has really changed something? What I believe is that you can't change anything without using art. I believe that the drops wear away the stone. I try to be part of that army.