If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be.

I've got so many ideas, and sometimes the more exhausted my body gets, the more active my mind gets.

It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells.

I am very happy in second-hand bookshops; would a gardener not be happy in a garden?

[Margaret Thatcher] was always talking about what the prudent housewife should do and what the prudent housewife knew.

Busyness, I feel increasingly, is the writer's curse and downfall. You read too much and write too readily, you become cut off from your inner life, from the flow of your own thoughts, and turned far too much towards the outside world.

I dislike pastiche; it attracts attention to the language only.