The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.

People who wrote literary novels about the past probably didn't want them pegged as historical fiction. Certainly that was true in England.

If the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set. The monarchy is mildly interesting and largely harmless. I can't find I can get very heated about it. In the next couple of generations, it is bound to go. There is so much else in the world that is more interesting.

Imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.

Like a historian, I interpret, select, discard, shape, simplify. Unlike a historian, I make up people's thoughts.

If you have a good story idea, don't assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.

Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.